scholarly journals Modelling the Quest for Status in Ancient Greece: Paying for Liturgies

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 213-236
Author(s):  
George Tridimas
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Public Provision ◽  
Ancient Economy ◽  
Ancient Athens ◽  
Redistributive Taxation ◽  
State Administration ◽  
Status Seeking ◽  
Hypothetical System ◽  
Greek Economy ◽  
The Rich

AbstractThe substantive view of the ancient economy argues that social considerations and especially the quest for status featured prominently in ancient Greece. Paying for liturgies, the private finance of public expenditure by wealthy individuals, offered the opportunity to acquire status by choosing the level of contributions to outperform rival providers. Effectively, liturgies were a system of finance of public provision through redistributive taxation sidestepping state administration of taxes and expenditures. Applying the insights of the economic approach to status, the paper examines status competition in ancient Athens and compares paying for liturgies with a hypothetical system of explicit income taxation of the rich. It is concluded that status seeking increased aggregate provision of public goods. The results formalise important aspects of substantivism and illustrate the value of formal economic analysis in the investigation of the ancient Greek economy.

The Economy of Ancient Greece: A Conceptual Framework

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Alain Bresson
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
New Institutional Economics ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Homo Economicus ◽  
Ancient Economy ◽  
Greek Economy

This chapter describes the conceptual framework used by the book to study the economy of ancient Greece. It begins with a discussion of the debate between “primitivists,” represented by Karl Bücher, and “modernists,” represented by Eduard Meyer, over the nature of the ancient Greek economy. It considers Bücher's adherence to the so-called German Historical School of Political Economy and goes on to examine the views of Moses I. Finley and Max Weber regarding the ancient economy, Karl Polanyi's use of institutionalism as an approach to the study of the ancient economy, and the main assumptions of New Institutional Economics (NIE) with regard to the genesis and evolution of institutions. The chapter also analyzes the transaction costs theory and concludes with an assessment of criticisms against the classical economists' economic agent, the homo economicus, and the influence of constrained choices and limited rationality on economic performance.

The private banks in fourth-century b.c. Athens: a reappraisal

1997 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 396-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsty M. W. Shipton
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Ancient Economy ◽  
Private Banks ◽  
Greek Economy ◽  
Private Banking

This essay has two aims: to affirm the significance of private banking in fourthcentury B.C. Athens, and to propose a model of its role in the economy. Such a project is desirable because there has been a tendency since the publication of Finley's The Ancient Economy to minimalize the significance of banking in ancient Greece. Banking is seen as a ‘fringe activity’ largely carried out by such ‘outsiders’ as metics and ex-slaves.Consequently historians have frequently overlooked the value of banking as a tool for understanding the Greek economy.

scholarly journals GEI. Greek Economic Inscriptions (online)

Axon ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donatella Erdas ◽  
Anna Magnetto
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
English Translation ◽  
Technical Information ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Critical Editions ◽  
Greek Economy ◽  
Selection Of

In recent years the attention of modern scholars to ancient Greek economy has received impetus from a series of newly published documents of undisputed significance. The results have been a deeply renewed examination of consolidated theoretical positions, and a detailed analysis of specific aspects of the economic life of the polis. Within this framework the GEI project aims at providing an online collection of epigraphic documents related to the economy of ancient Greece. Some of these documents, already known or newly discovered, have never been collected in a selection of this kind. The project covers a period from the archaic age to 1st century BC. The selected texts are representative of the different areas of ancient Greek economy, and are marked-up using the EpiDoc encoding conventions. For each document all technical information has been provided along with existing critical editions, bibliography, a critical apparatus, an English translation and a commentary.

Creating Fair (Economic) Space for Social Innovation? A Capabilities Perspective

2019 ◽  
pp. 50-79
Author(s):  
Rafael Ziegler ◽  
Nadia von Jacobi
Keyword(s):  
Social Innovation ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Public Provision ◽  
Economic Space ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Social Innovations ◽  
The Rich

Economic space for social innovation is not bounded by markets. Further to the money-based exchange relations in markets, there is self and informal provision based on social norms such as reciprocity, community, public provision of entitlements and of public goods organized via political processes, and professional provision based on expert knowledge. Although these ideal-types blur in practice, they show the rich contours and collaborative pluralism of economic space. Fostering fair space for social innovation requires taking all these modes and their relations into account. Social innovations as messages signal to the public where a change in mode or a reconfiguration of modes is demanded. Fairness as a matter of taking the perspective of those marginalized and least advantaged, calls for evaluative scrutiny with respect to such messages: do social innovations empower beneficiaries to become agents; and do they consider their well-being as patients?

scholarly journals Measuring institutional quality in ancient Athens

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREAS BERGH ◽  
CARL HAMPUS LYTTKENS
Keyword(s):  
Economic Freedom ◽  
Important Determinant ◽  
Institutional Quality ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Extended Period ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Ancient Athens ◽  
Fourth Century Bce ◽  
Economic Freedom Index ◽  
City State

AbstractWe use the Economic Freedom Index to characterize the institutions of the Athenian city-state in the fourth century BCE. It has been shown that ancient Greece witnessed improved living conditions for an extended period of time. Athens in the fourth century appears to have fared particularly well. We find that economic freedom in ancient Athens is on level with the highest ranked modern economies such as Hong Kong and Singapore. With the exception of the position of women and slaves, Athens scores high in almost every dimension of economic freedom. Trade is probably highly important even by current standards. As studies of contemporary societies suggest that institutional quality is probably an important determinant of economic growth, it may also have been one factor in the relative material success of the Athenians.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document