Club Theory and The Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Community (in Hebrew)

Jacob Rosenberg

Abstract

This paper applies club theory to the behavior of the ultra-orthodox Jewish community in Israel by using different assumptions than those that have been employed by Berman (1998, 2000). Berman's model explains the extraordinarily length of the period years that ultra-orthodox Jews devote to studying in yeshiva (and thereby do not enter the labor force). He views this as sacrifice (commitment) required by the community in order to prevent outsiders from free riding on the highly subsidized services given to the community members. We argue that some of the assumptions and implications of Berman's model are not consistent with the revealed behavior of the ultra-orthodox community. By modifying these assumptions we derive an alternative model.  The results of our model are significantly different from Berman's model both in terms of their explanation of the phenomenon of long yeshiva studies, and their implicit implications for effective policies aimed at conscripting yeshiva students to the army.