"Honesty is wealth, or turpitudinal peccadilloes"
The class I am taking on "Incentives and Organizations" has offered an unanticipated joy. Many of the articles we are reading were written before economists discovered mathematics and, in doing so, forgot the beauties of the English language. One particular gem that inspired today's title is Alchian and Demsetz's "Production, Information Costs, and Economic Organization" (American Economic Review, December 1972). Buried in a footnote is a sentence that has been a revelation (in the sense of something that is already there, but unseen or unarticulated): ". . . a reputation for "honest" dealings . . . is wealth". I am not sure Alchian or Demsetz quite realized the theological implications of their statement, but they brush close to "blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: they shall be filled".
And any academic article that includes the phrase "turpitudinal peccadilloes" deserves to be read!
