Economic growth in the Roman Mediterranean world: An early good-bye to Malthus?

Paul Erdkamp

Explorations in Economic History, 2016, vol. 60, issue C, 1-20

Abstract: Was the Roman world caught in a Malthusian trap? In this survey, I draw on a wide range of evidence – from archeological data to city size estimates – to argue that Malthusian constraints were not binding over long periods. Market-size effects allowed the Roman economy to grow substantially in per capita terms, despite population growth. I place these observations in the context of recent debates and contributions by both ancient historians and – for the long run – by economists.

Keywords: Economic growth; Demography; Agriculture; Malthus; Subsidiary labor; Underemployment; Urbanization; Roman Empire (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014498315000613
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:exehis:v:60:y:2016:i:c:p:1-20

DOI: 10.1016/j.eeh.2015.11.004

Access Statistics for this article

Explorations in Economic History is currently edited by R.H. Steckel

More articles in Explorations in Economic History from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().