The paper seeks to throw light at two discrete phenomena that were deemed as decisive for the development of the ancient Hellenic world and for urbanization in that part of the world via the emergence of sovereign urban entities, the Greek poleis. Although distinct, they are two conceptually and...

What caused the rise of ancient Greek city-states? To answer this question, I develop a model that synthesizes neo-institutionalist, neo-physiocrat, and neo-classical theories of development and advances a trade-based explanation consistent with the writing of classicists. Then, with a new...

We use archaeological data from ancient settlements of three different historical eras on a Greek island to construct novel measures of consumption. Using these, we show that luxury good consumption was higher closer to the center of nucleated settlements but shows no such pattern in a placebo...

By analyzing the case of Athens during the Classical period (508-323 BCE) the main thesis of this paper is that under direct democracy procedures and the related institutional setup, a monetary system without a Central Bank may function relatively well. We focus on the following issues: (i) Τhe...

A region's present-day economic performance can be deeply anchored in historical factors. We provide the first systematic evidence of a deep imprinting effect in the context of Roman rule in the south-western part of Germany nearly 2,000 years ago. Our analysis reveals that regions in the former...

Recent scholarship contends that ancient Mediterranean economies grew intensively, contrary to standard Malthusian predictions. An explanation is Smithian growth spurred by reductions in transaction costs and increased trade flows. This paper argues that an ancient Greek institution, proxenia,...

Researchers increasingly recognize that entrepreneurial employees, intrapreneurs, play a critical role in innovation. As with regular entrepreneurship, however, the value of intrapreneurial activity depends on the firm-specific and societal reward structures that intrapreneurs face. Ideally,...

The sector of tourism is a leading service sector according to the BoP methodology. Nowadays, not only has Covid-19 put the sector to the test, but many economic operators claim that they need for government support measures. Therefore, a strategic transformation of the tourism sector during and...

Over the last 60 years, much analytical research has sought to determine the ore sources of ancient Greek silver artefacts. Lead isotopic analysis has played a key role in this. Most studies have limited their search to places mentioned in historical sources. This study takes a different...

This examination of non-slave labour in Spain complements existing studies on Italy, Gaul and Africa, and thus fills an urgent gap in our understanding of the Roman economy while providing a basis for comparison with the other western provinces. The role of Hispano-Roman non-slave labour in all...

The Silk Roads were a decentralized network of trade routes that connected ancient cities across Eurasia. Goods, ideas, people, and technology moved along the roads for over 1,500 years. Using a detailed georeferenced map of the entire trade network, this paper finds that areas within 50 KM of...

It is generally believed that the systematic study of economics and its principles was started in 1776 with the publication of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, who has been universally held as the founding father of economics. Prior to Adam Smith,...

As the Sino-U.S. relationship goes on a downward spiral, increasingly more strange things have come out to haunt the two biggest economies in the world. One of these things involves the idea to make China pay for the sovereign bonds issued by its predeceasing regimes almost a century ago. This...

"This volume reconsiders the economic history of the ancient and late ancient Mediterranean and Near East from the perspective of David Graeber's anthropological theory. It pursues two purposes. On the one hand, it tests the accuracy of the grand narrative put forward in his 2011 monograph Debt:...

Researchers increasingly recognize that entrepreneurial employees, intrapreneurs, play a critical role in innovation. As with regular entrepreneurship, however, the value of intrapreneurial activity depends on the firm-specific and societal reward structures that intrapreneurs face. Ideally,...

The plunder of the Yuanmingyuan in 1860 brought new kinds of Chinese decorative arts to Britain. British collectors and dealers grappled with these novelties and established the market in Chinese imperial art over the next several years, quickly bringing a known system of values to material of...

Our schools and colleges face enlarging potholes on the information superhighway because of antiquated intellectual property policies in academia. Many academic institutions have no explicit intellectual property policy; others may have established policies for inventions by faculty and...

The chapter analyzes the basis of the market economy in classical Rome, from the perspective of personal vs impersonal exchange and focusing on the role of the state in providing market-enabling institutions. It starts by reviewing the central conflict in all exchanges between those holding and...

We investigate whether the Roman presence in the southern part of Germany nearly 2,000 years ago had a deep imprinting effect with long run consequences on a broad spectrum of measures ranging from present-day personality profiles to a number of socioeconomic outcomes and why. Today's...

We investigate whether the Roman presence in the southern part of Germany nearly 2,000 years ago had a deep imprinting effect with long run consequences on a broad spectrum of measures ranging from present-day personality profiles to a number of socioeconomic outcomes and why. Today's...

This paper explores the impact of antiquity on capitalism through the finance-growth nexus. We define antiquity as the length of established statehood (i.e., state history) and agricultural years. We argue that extractive institutions and deeply entrenched interest groups may prevail in...

"Recent works by economic historians of early modern Europe have argued for a link between encyclopedias of the 18th century and the developments culminating in the Industrial Revolution. Diderot and D'Alembert's great Encyclopedie aimed to disseminate useful knowledge for productive growth and...

"Slavery was a ubiquitous and fundamental phenomenon of Greek and Roman societies. Slaves constituted a substantial proportion of the population of ancient communities; they worked in practically all sectors of ancient economies, as agricultural workers, artisans, traders, servants, performers,...

The establishment of Christianity in the late- and post-Roman world caused an economic as well as a religious revolution, but, while a great deal of attention has been paid to the religious developments of the period, the impact of the establishment of the Church on the economy has attracted...

Part I: Methodology for the Economic History and the History of Economic Thought of Antiquity -- Part II: Development Models -- Part III: Trade, Specialisation and Growth -- Part IV: Debts, Slaves and Finance.