Publications
Publications
- January 1995 (Revised March 1997)
- HBS Case Collection
A Bankruptcy Problem from the Talmud
Abstract
Describes a problem of bankruptcy, following the treatment in the 2,000-year-old Babylonian Talmud. A person dies, leaving a number of debts that total more than the size of the estate. The question is: How should the estate be divided among the creditors? The case presents the Talmudic prescriptions for dividing three such estates. The estate division problem is then reinterpreted as the problem of how a number of partners involved in a project should divide the total cost of the project among them. The Talmudic prescription for estate division coincides with the added value approach. (In particular, it is neither equal nor proportional division.) The analysis applies beyond the context of estate division, as the cost-sharing reinterpretation demonstrates.
Keywords
Citation
Brandenburger, Adam M., Harborne W. Stuart Jr., and Barry Nalebuff. "A Bankruptcy Problem from the Talmud." Harvard Business School Case 795-087, January 1995. (Revised March 1997.)