Income Inequality in Ancient Empires: Replication Package
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Guido Alfani, Bocconi University
Version: View help for Version V1
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Project Citation:
Alfani, Guido. Income Inequality in Ancient Empires: Replication Package. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-02-20. https://doi.org/10.3886/E220181V1
Project Description
Summary:
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The emergence of
vast territorial empires is a recurring development in the history of human
civilization. Their ability to extract resources from their subjects, and to
redistribute them, is also an ability to achieve higher levels of economic
inequality. Here we explore for the first time how imperial
structures contributed to set the level of inequality in two ancient empires,
the Roman Empire ca. 165 CE and the Chinese Han Empire ca. 2 CE. We find that
the Han Empire was, overall, more unequal and extractive than the Roman Empire.
Other empires, however, were even more extractive, as shown by a comparison
with the Aztec Empire ca. 1492. We argue that higher inequality increased the
potential for political instability and the collapse of empires.
Scope of Project
Subject Terms:
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income inequality;
roman empire;
han empire;
preindustrial societies;
inequality extraction;
social tables;
empires
Geographic Coverage:
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Europe and Asia
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