Competition in consumption as viewed by Jewish law

Competition is the most basic force traditionally regarded by Western economists as governing both society's resources allocation and income distribution. No wonder, then, that many legal systems have been concerned with various aspects of competitive activity, and formulated laws and rulings to keep market behavior within limits of ethical conduct. Jewish law has not been an exception. The focus of this paper is on competition in consumption. Its underlying assumption is that lawmakers' decisions approximate optimality in resource allocation. The validity of the ‘optimality’ assumption is assessed in light of the special moral features unique to Jewish law. Yehoshua Lieberman is Senior Lecturer in Business and Economics at the Department of Economics and Business Administration of Bar-Ilan University, Israel. Previously he was Visiting Associate Professor at the Department of Marketing of the University of Washington at Seattle. His most important publications areElements of Talmudic Monetary Thought andThe Coase Theorem in Jewish Law.