Law and Transaction Costs in the Ancient Economy

Law and Transaction Costs in the Ancient Economy PDF Author: Dennis P. Kehoe
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472119605
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
A critical element of economic performance from antiquity to the present

Law and Transaction Costs in the Ancient Economy

Law and Transaction Costs in the Ancient Economy PDF Author: Dennis P. Kehoe
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472119605
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
A critical element of economic performance from antiquity to the present

Managing Information in the Roman Economy

Managing Information in the Roman Economy PDF Author: Cristina Rosillo-López
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030541002
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
This volume studies information as an economic resource in the Roman World. Information asymmetry is a distinguishing phenomenon of any human relationship. From an economic perspective, private or hidden information, opposed to publicly observable information, generates advantages and inequalities; at the same time, it is a source of profit, legal and illegal, and of transaction costs. The contributions that make up the present book aim to deepen our understanding of the economy of Ancient Rome by identifying and analysing formal and informal systems of knowledge and institutions that contributed to control, manage, restrict and enhance information. The chapters scrutinize the impact of information asymmetries on specific economic sectors, such as the labour market and the market of real estate, as well as the world of professional associations and trading networks. It further discusses structures and institutions that facilitated and regulated economic information in the public and the private spheres, such as market places, auctions, financial mechanisms and instruments, state treasures and archives. Managing Asymmetric Information in the Roman Economy invites the reader to evaluate economic activities within a larger collective mental, social, and political framework, and aims ultimately to test the applicability of tools and ideas from theoretical frameworks such as the Economics of Information to ancient and comparative historical research.

The Economic Perspective

The Economic Perspective PDF Author: Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In this chapter, I distill some elements of the demand and supply of institutions designed to reduce transaction costs in the ancient world. I some cases, contractual parties could reduce transaction cost by accurately designing contracts. In other cases, the failure of private coordination placed the state in a better position than private parties in reducing transaction costs. I emphasize two such (by no means exclusive) contexts: cases in which the gains from reducing transaction costs were spread among large numbers of transactions and cases in which contracts have effects for third parties. Identifying a demand for state intervention raises the question whether the state supplied the appropriate institutions. The state supply of institutions to reduce transaction costs in the ancient world varied. A political-economy perspective suggests that differences depend on the extent to which the state internalizes the gains generated from such institutions.

Economics of Ancient Law

Economics of Ancient Law PDF Author: Geoffrey P. Miller
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781785362293
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 800

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Book Description


Economic Structures of Antiquity

Economic Structures of Antiquity PDF Author: Morris Silver
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313031339
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
The economy of the ancient Middle East and Greece is reinterpreted by Morris Silver in this provocative new synthesis. Silver finds that the ancient economy emerges as a class of economies with its own laws of motion shaped by transaction costs (the resources used up in exchanging ownership rights). The analysis of transaction costs provides insights into many characteristics of the ancient economy, such as the important role of the sacred and symbolic gestures in making contracts, magical technology, the entrepreneurial role of high-born women, the elevation of familial ties and other departures from impersonal economics, reliance on slavery and adoption, and the insatiable drive to accumulate trust-capital. The peculiar behavior patterns and mindsets of ancient economic man are shown to be facilitators of economic growth. In recent years, our view of the economy of the ancient world has been shaped by the theories of Karl Polanyi. Silver confronts Polanyi's empirical propositions with the available evidence and demonstrates that antiquity knew active and sophisticated markets. In the course of providing an alternative analytical framework for studying the ancient economy, Silver gives critical attention to the economic views of the Assyriologists I.M. Diakonoff, W.F. Leemans, Mario Liverani, and J.N. Postgate; of the Egyptologists Jacob J. Janssen and Wolfgang Helck; and of the numerous followers of Moses Finley. Silver convincingly demonstrates that the ancient world was not static: periods of pervasive economic regulation by the state are interspersed with lengthy periods of relatively unfettered market activity, and the economies of Sumer, Babylonia, and archaic Greece were capable of transforming themselves in order to take advantage of new opportunities. This new synthesis is essential reading for economic historians and researchers of the ancient Near East and Greece.

The Ancient Greek Economy

The Ancient Greek Economy PDF Author: Edward M. Harris
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107035880
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 489

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Book Description
Markets, Households and City-States in the Ancient Greek Economy brings together sixteen essays by leading scholars of the ancient Greek economy. The essays investigate the role of market-exchange in the economy of the ancient Greek world in the Classical and Hellenistic periods.

Law and the Rural Economy in the Roman Empire

Law and the Rural Economy in the Roman Empire PDF Author: Dennis P. Kehoe
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 9780472115822
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
A bold application of economic theory to help provide an understanding of the role that law played in the development of the Roman economy

Law and the Rural Economy in the Roman Empire

Law and the Rural Economy in the Roman Empire PDF Author: Dennis P. Kehoe
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 047202535X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
The economy of the Roman Empire was predominantly agrarian: Roman landowners, agricultural laborers, and small tenant farmers were highly dependent upon one another for assuring stability. By examining the property rights established by the Roman government, in particular the laws concerning land tenure and the contractual relationships between wealthy landowners and the tenant farmers to whom they leased their land, Dennis P. Kehoe is able to demonstrate how the state fostered economic development and who benefited the most. In this bold application of economic theory, Kehoe explores the relationship between Roman private law and the development of the Roman economy during a crucial period of the Roman Empire, from the second to the fourth century C.E. Kehoe is able to use the laws concerning land tenure, and the Roman government's enforcement of those laws, as a window through which to develop a more comprehensive view of the Roman economy. With its innovative application of the methodologies of law and economics and the New Institutional Economics Law and the Rural Economy in the Roman Empire is a groundbreaking addition to the study of the Roman economy. Dennis P. Kehoe is Professor of Classical Studies at Tulane University. He is the author of several books, including Investment, Profit, and Tenancy: The Jurists and the Roman Agrarian Economy(University of Michigan Press, 1997). "Kehoe brings his deep expertise in Roman land tenure systems and his broad knowledge of the methodologies of New Institutional Economics to bear on questions of fundamental importance regarding the relationship of Roman law and society. Was governmental policy on agriculture designed to benefit large landowners or small farmers? What impact did it have on the rural economy? The fascinating answers Kehoe provides in this pathbreaking work should occasion a major reassessment of such problems by social and legal historians." ---Thomas McGinn, Department of Classical Studies at Vanderbilt University, and author of The Economy of Prostitution in the Roman World: A Study of Social History and the Brothel and Prostitution, Sexuality, and the Law in Ancient Rome "A ground-breaking study using the principles of New Institutional Economics to analyze the impact of legal policy in balancing the interests of Roman tenant-farmers and landowners in the 2-4 centuries C.E. Kehoe's book will be essential reading for historians of the Roman Empire, demonstrating how the government overcame challenges and contradictions as it sought to regulate this enormous sector of the economy." ---Susan D. Martin, Department of Classics, University of Tennessee "In Law and the Rural Economy, Kehoe brings to life the workings of the ancient economy and the Roman legal system. By analyzing interactions between the imperial government, landlords, and tenant farmers in provinces across the Empire, Kehoe opens insights into imperial economic policy. He handles a variety of challenging sources with mastery and wit, and his knowledge of scholarship is extensive and thorough, covering ancient history, textual problems in the sources, legal history and, perhaps most impressively, the modern fields of economic theory and 'law and economics.' Kehoe's innovative and sophisticated methodology sets his work apart. The book will make an important contribution to our understanding of access to the law and the effectiveness of the legal system, important topics for scholars of law, ancient and modern." ---Cynthia J. Bannon, Department of Classical Studies, Indiana University

Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies

Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies PDF Author: Sitta von Reden
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110604930
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 1131

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Book Description
The second volume of the Handbook describes different extractive economies in the world regions that have been outlined in the first volume. A wide range of economic actors – from kings and armies to cities and producers – are discussed within different imperial settings as well as the tools, which enabled and constrained economic outcomes. A central focus are nodes of consumption that are visible in the archaeological and textual records of royal capitals, cities, religious centers, and armies that were stationed, in some cases permanently, in imperial frontier zones. Complementary to the multipolar concentrations of consumption are the fiscal-tributary structures of the empires vis-à-vis other institutions that had the capacity to extract, mobilize, and concentrate resources and wealth. Larger volumes of state-issued coinage in various metals show the new role of coinage in taxation, local economic activities, and social practices, even where textual evidence is absent. Given the overwhelming importance of agriculture, the volume also analyses forms of agrarian development, especially around cities and in imperial frontier zones. Special consideration is given to road- and water-management systems for which there is now sufficient archaeological and documentary evidence to enable cross-disciplinary comparative research.

Roman Law and Economics

Roman Law and Economics PDF Author: Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191090972
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Ancient Rome is the only society in the history of the western world whose legal profession evolved autonomously, distinct and separate from institutions of political and religious power. Roman legal thought has left behind an enduring legacy and exerted enormous influence on the shaping of modern legal frameworks and systems, but its own genesis and context pose their own explanatory problems. The economic analysis of Roman law has enormous untapped potential in this regard: by exploring the intersecting perspectives of legal history, economic history, and the economic analysis of law, the two volumes of Roman Law and Economics are able to offer a uniquely interdisciplinary examination of the origins of Roman legal institutions, their functions, and their evolution over a period of more than 1000 years, in response to changes in the underlying economic activities that those institutions regulated. Volume I explores these legal institutions and organizations in detail, from the constitution of the Roman Republic to the management of business in the Empire, while Volume II covers the concepts of exchange, ownership, and disputes, analysing the detailed workings of credit, property, and slavery, among others. Throughout each volume, contributions from specialists in legal and economic history, law, and legal theory are underpinned by rigorous analysis drawing on modern empirical and theoretical techniques and methodologies borrowed from economics. In demonstrating how these can be fruitfully applied to the study of ancient societies, with due deference to the historical context, Roman Law and Economics opens up a host of new avenues of research for scholars and students in each of these fields and in the social sciences more broadly, offering new ways in which different modes of enquiry can connect with and inform each other.