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Hostile Territory: High‐Tension Religion and the Jewish Peddler

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  • Colleen E. H. Berndt

Abstract

. Scholars have long explored the role that reputation plays in the facilitation of exchange. Some attention has also been paid to the way in which religions serve as a proxy for reputation or as a mechanism for enforcement of exchange agreements. These reputation and enforcement mechanisms enhance the ability of the members of certain religious groups to perform economic roles where such secular‐based mechanisms fail or are absent. In this article, I explore the ways in which hostility toward members of high‐tension religions makes them uniquely well suited to the economic role of middlemen. As illustration, I explore the particular case of the 19th‐century German Jewish peddler in the young United States.

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  • Colleen E. H. Berndt, 2007. "Hostile Territory: High‐Tension Religion and the Jewish Peddler," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(5), pages 1005-1027, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:66:y:2007:i:5:p:1005-1027
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1536-7150.2007.00534.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Barzel, Yoram, 1992. "Confiscation by the Ruler: The Rise and Fall of Jewish Lending in the Middle Ages," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(1), pages 1-13, April.
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    3. Barak D. Richman, 2006. "How Community Institutions Create Economic Advantage: Jewish Diamond Merchants in New York," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Roman Grynberg & Letsema Mbayi (ed.), The Global Diamond Industry, chapter 2, pages 44-86, Palgrave Macmillan.
    4. Iannaccone, Laurence R, 1992. "Sacrifice and Stigma: Reducing Free-Riding in Cults, Communes, and Other Collectives," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(2), pages 271-291, April.
    5. George A. Akerlof, 1970. "The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500.
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    Cited by:

    1. Tom Potoms & Tom Truyts, 2020. "Unhappy is the land without symbols - Group symbols in infinitely repeated public good games," Working Paper Series 1720, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.

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