
The Economics of Sin: Rational Choice or No Choice at All? 0 Edition
Author(s): Samuel Cameron (Author)
- Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
- Publication Date: January 27, 2003
- Language: English
- Print length: 256 pages
- ISBN-10: 1840648678
- ISBN-13: 9781840648676
Book Description
The book considers the formation of religions, including the new age revival of ‘wicca’, as regulators of the quasi-market in sins, and goes on to appraise the role of specific sins such as lying, envy, jealousy, greed, lust, sloth, and waste in individual markets and in macroeconomic activity. Empirical evidence on issues such as cannibalism, capital punishment, addiction, adultery and prostitution is also explored. Samuel Cameron concludes that a large percentage of economic activity is intimately connected with forms of sin which are in some circumstances highly beneficial to the functioning of markets, particularly in the presence of market failure.
This innovative, interdisciplinary study of the institution of sin will be of enormous interest to a wide-ranging readership, including researchers and teachers of economics, sociology and theology. It will also be of importance for anthropologists and philosophers.
Editorial Reviews
Review
‘The Economics of Sin
is a timely work, a bold and engaging – though controversial – journey into territory where there is much to be done but most modern economists still fear to tread. . . It makes a useful contribution to the discipline, and should force any reader to grapple with some fairly deep questions that, until recently, lay nearly dormant in the economics literature.’ — Joseph G. Eisenhauer, Review of Social Economy ‘It is a remarkable book and presages what might have been called “the economics of the Bible”. The author very successfully invokes the arguments of economics and blends them with theology.’ — John Brewer, Network ‘The ultimate test of a book is whether it should be granted shelf space in one’s library. The Economics of Sin should be considered a work produced more at the beginning of a field of thought than in the middle or at the end. There is much unexplored territory. Cameron is a Marco Polo who has traveled afar and now recounts the amazing things he has seen on his journey. Before we begin our own journey, we want to know what he knows, both to warn us away from preventable mistakes or shortcomings, as well as to help us formulated our own conjectures and compare them to what others have done. The Economics of Sin performs a great service that reflects the amount of time and care that went into preparing it. It easily passes the library shelf space test.’ — Earl L. Grinols, Faith and Economics
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