Albino Barrera argues that Christian thought on economic security offers an effective framework within which to address the consequences of economic compulsion. Markets can often be harsh in compelling people to make unpalatable economic choices any reasonable person would not take under normal conditions. Such economic ripple effects of market operations have been virtually ignored in ethical discourse because they are generally accepted to be the very mechanisms that shape the market's much-touted allocative efficiency.

Professor Albino Barrera teaches in both theology and economics at Providence College. His most recent book is Modern Catholic Social Documents and Political Economy published in 2001.

General editor's preface; Preface; Part I. The Nature and Dynamics of Economic Compulsion: 1. Markets and coercive pecuniary externalities; 2. The regressive incidence of unintended burdens; Part II. Setting the Moral Baseline and Shaping Expectations: 3. Economic security as God's twofold gift; 4. Retrieving the biblical principle of restoration; Part III. Contemporary Appropriation: 5. Economic rights-obligations as diagnostic framework; 6. Application: the case of agricultural protectionism; 7. Summary and conclusions; References; Index.