Abstract
What if someone bought a property in good faith, not realizing that this property was unjustly confiscated from the previous owner? In such situations, if the new owner decided to sell this property, Talmud recommended that a fair way is to return 1/4 of the selling price to the original owner. However, it does not provide any explanation of why exactly 1/4—and not any other portion—is to be returned. In this paper, we provide an economic explanation for this recommendation, an explanation that fits well with other ancient recommendations about debts.
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References
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation grants 1623190 (A Model of Change for Preparing a New Generation for Professional Practice in Computer Science), and HRD-1834620 and HRD-2034030 (CAHSI Includes), and by the AT&T Fellowship in Information Technology.
It was also supported by the program of the development of the Scientific-Educational Mathematical Center of Volga Federal District No. 075-02-2020-1478, and by a grant from the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NRDI).
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Kosheleva, O., Kreinovich, V. (2023). Why Should Exactly 1/4 Be Returned to the Original Owner: An Economic Explanation of an Ancient Recommendation. In: Ceberio, M., Kreinovich, V. (eds) Uncertainty, Constraints, and Decision Making. Studies in Systems, Decision and Control, vol 484. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36394-8_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36394-8_16
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