Is God an Economist?: An Institutional Economic Reconstruction of the Old Testament

293 Pages·2009·1.231 MB·English

by  Sigmund Wagner-Tsukamoto (auth.)

Is God an Economist?
Also by Sigmund Wagner-Tsukamoto
HUMAN NATURE AND ORGANIZATION THEORY
UNDERSTANDING GREEN CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
Is God an Economist?
An Institutional Economic Reconstruction
of the Old Testament
Sigmund Wagner-Tsukamoto
School of Management, University of Leicester, UK
© Sigmund Wagner-Tsukamoto 2009
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-22222-9
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First published 2009 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-30778-4 ISBN 978-0-230-23409-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230234093
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To M., M. and N.
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Contents
List of Figures xii
Preface xiii
Acknowledgements xv
Copyright Acknowledgements xvi
Introduction 1
1 The Economic Approach to Reconstructing the Bible 11
1.1 How to read Old Testament stories in institutional
economic terms 12
On the textual nature of Old Testament deconstruction 12
Incentive structures and the societal contract 18
From positive to normative institutional economics:
Analysing and achieving mutual gains 23
Interactions over capital contributions and
capital distributions 25
Dilemma structures and economic man and intervention
with the incentive compatibility of the situation 26
1.2 Differences to previous economic and theological
research on the Old Testament 28
The theological approach to understanding the Bible 29
The religious economic approach to Bible studies 32
1.3 On the permissibility of economic and other
scientific research on the Bible 38
Economic research on the Bible: Ontological issues
or a matter of approach? 38
Does economics entertain an unrealistic and dark
image of human nature? 40
1.4 Concluding remarks 42
2 The Eden Story and Dilemma Analysis – A Paradise Lost? 45
2.1 The heuristic role of the commons dilemma
and the prisoner’s dilemma in institutional
economic reconstruction 45
vii
viii Contents
2.2 The original sin and a rational fools’ dilemma
in Paradise 49
Capital scarcities and capital contribution issues
in Paradise 50
Capital scarcities and capital distribution issues
in Paradise 51
A constitutional economic reading of scarcity
problems and interaction conflict in Paradise 53
Contested ‘good x’ and the natural distribution
state in the Paradise story 56
Rationally foolish interaction outcomes for
God and Adam & Eve 58
The original sin as analytical driver of Bible stories 60
2.3 The first encounter with ‘economic man’ in the
Paradise story: The portrayal of human nature or
methodological fiction? 63
On the heuristic purpose of economic man 64
Economic man in the Paradise scenario and
the snake metaphor 65
2.4 Concluding remarks 70
3 On the Genesis of the Wealth of Nations 73
3.1 Evidence of behavioural economics in the early stories of
Genesis: Social ordering in value homogeneous settings 74
The early societal contract: Value contracts with
God as sovereign 75
Behavioural economic ordering in the early stories
of Genesis 78
3.2 Towards institutional economic order in Genesis:
Capital scarcities, dilemmatic capital exchange,
incentive structures and mutual gains 82
Scarcities in capital as starting point of biblical
storytelling 82
A dilemmatic conflict model of capital contributions
and capital distributions 84
Incentive structures and institutional ordering
in the early biblical society 94
Wealth of nations (mutual gains) as goal of
conflict resolution 97
Pluralism as a rising interaction condition in Genesis:
Towards an economic societal contract 99
3.3 The prevalence of economic man in Genesis after
the Paradise story 109
Contents ix
Self-interest, wealth accumulation and wealth creation 109
Darker shades of self-interest: The behavioural
punishment of ‘bad’, opportunistic behaviour 111
Biblical characters getting away with
opportunistic behaviour? 113
3.4 Economic ordering in complex, multicultural
settings: Joseph and the Israelites in Egypt 118
Dilemmatic scarcities as interaction conditions in
the Joseph story 120
Pluralism as an interaction condition in the Joseph story 121
Egypt’s economic policies under Joseph’s reign 123
Joseph: Hero by thesis, Moses: Non-hero by anti-thesis 128
3.5 Concluding remarks 135
4 On the Exodus of the Wealth of Nations 140
4.1 The breakdown of cooperation and rational foolishness
as outcome of Moses’ and the pharaoh’s interactions 141
The commons dilemma and uncontrolled
population growth 142
Further cooperation dilemmas and unresolved
industrial relations problems 145
A modern parallel of industrial relations problems
in an Exodus-like scenario 148
The failure to intervene with economic institutions
in a dilemma structure 150
Mutual loss as interaction outcome 154
4.2 Economic man in the Exodus scenario 157
Moses and the pharaoh acting like economic men 157
The snake metaphor in Exodus 159
4.3 Prisoners and prosecutor: God’s intervention
in the Exodus 161
Cooperation failures driven by God 161
Godly intervention in Exodus and the failure
to master pluralism as interaction condition 165
4.4 Concluding remarks 166
5 Institutional Ordering after the Exodus 169
5.1 Institutional ordering during the Exodus journey 170
Dilemmatic interest conflicts during the Exodus journey
and the Levites’ economic man-like, opportunistic
acquisition of influence 170
Incentive structures, biblical laws and new
societal contracting 175