Economic History Seminar: The Limits of Equality: Lessons from the Israeli Kibbutz

Ran Abramitsky (Stanford), "The Limits of Equality: Lessons from the Israeli Kibbutz."

If one draws a distinction between "social democracy" and "socialism," it is sobering to think that--outside the hereditary monarchies of North Korea and Cuba--the sole institutional remnants of classic European socialism circa 1900 are the Israeli kibbutzes, which still comprise 2.5 percent of Israel's population.

Risk-sharing, monitoring, adverse selection, moral hazard, and ideological commitment.