IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/107898.html

Byzantine Economic Growth: Did Climate Change Play a Role?

Author

Listed:
  • Lambert, Thomas

Abstract

Different chroniclers of the history of the Byzantine Empire have noted various economic data gleamed from historical documents and accounts of the empire at different periods of time. Research for this paper has not uncovered any estimates of long term, annual macroeconomic data (gross domestic product (GDP), national income (NI), etc.) for the empire during its existence. Such data has been estimated to one extent or another for other nations and societies that have existed during the middle ages. This paper attempts to provide conjectures on approximate real GDP per capita trends for the empire over its existence from AD 300 to 1453. Finally, some hypotheses on factors that would have affected Byzantine economic performance are tested using climate/environmental factors. The results of this paper appear to confirm some findings on how the Byzantine economy might have been affected by periods of regional climate change.

Suggested Citation

  • Lambert, Thomas, 2021. "Byzantine Economic Growth: Did Climate Change Play a Role?," MPRA Paper 107898, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:107898
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/107898/1/MPRA_paper_107898.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Guido Alfani, 2021. "Economic Inequality in Preindustrial Times: Europe and Beyond," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(1), pages 3-44, March.
    2. Branko Milanovic, 2006. "An Estimate Of Average Income And Inequality In Byzantium Around Year 1000," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 52(3), pages 449-470, September.
    3. Morgan Kelly & Cormac Ó Gráda, 2014. "Debating the Little Ice Age," Working Papers 201406, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    4. Milanovic, Branko, 2010. "Income level and income inequality in the Euro-Mediterranean region: from the Principate to the Islamic conquest," MPRA Paper 46640, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Alfred H. Conrad & John R. Meyer, 1958. "The Economics of Slavery in the Ante Bellum South: Reply," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 66(5), pages 442-442.
    6. Laiou,Angeliki E. & Morrisson,Cécile, 2007. "The Byzantine Economy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521615020, January.
    7. Laiou,Angeliki E. & Morrisson,Cécile, 2007. "The Byzantine Economy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521849784, January.
    8. Jscques Melitz, 1971. "Some Further Reassessment Of The Scholastic Doctrine Of Usury," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 473-492, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Milanovic, Branko, 2024. "How rich were the rich? An empirically-based taxonomy of pre-industrial bases of wealth," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    2. Barthel, Stephan & Isendahl, Christian, 2013. "Urban gardens, agriculture, and water management: Sources of resilience for long-term food security in cities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 224-234.
    3. Benito Arruñada, 2015. "The Institutions of Roman Markets," Working Papers 813, Barcelona School of Economics.
    4. Gunes Gokmen & Wessel N. Vermeulen & Pierre-Louis Vézina, 2020. "The imperial roots of global trade," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 87-145, March.
    5. repec:osf:socarx:dvu74_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Guido Alfani & Michele Bolla & Walter Scheidel, 2025. "A comparison of income inequality in the Roman and Chinese Han empires," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-12, December.
    7. Caruso Raul & Antonella Biscione, 2022. "Militarization and Income Inequality in European Countries (2000–2017)," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 28(3), pages 267-285, September.
    8. Modalsli, Jørgen, 2011. "Inequality and growth in the very long run: inferring inequality from data on social groups," Memorandum 11/2011, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    9. Alfani, Guido & Ryckbosch, Wouter, 2016. "Growing apart in early modern Europe? A comparison of inequality trends in Italy and the Low Countries, 1500–1800," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 143-153.
    10. Milanovic, Branko, 2013. "The inequality possibility frontier: the extensions and new applications," Comparative Institutional Analysis Working Paper Series 2013:1, Lund University, Comparative Institutional Analysis, School of Economics and Management.
    11. Robert Browne, 1993. "The economic basis for reparations to black America," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 99-110, March.
    12. Mohamed M. Mostafa, 2023. "A one-hundred-year structural topic modeling analysis of the knowledge structure of international management research," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 3905-3935, August.
    13. , Stone Center & Bleynat, Ingrid & Challú, Amílcar & Segal, Paul, 2020. "Inequality, Living Standards and Growth: Two Centuries of Economic Development in Mexico," SocArXiv 9ztb7, Center for Open Science.
    14. Andersson, Martin & Molinder, Jakob, 2022. "Persistently egalitarian? Swedish income inequality in 1613 and the four-estate parliament," Lund Papers in Economic History 235, Lund University, Department of Economic History.
    15. Graziella Bertocchi & Arcangelo Dimico, 2020. "Bitter Sugar: Slavery and the Black Family," Department of Economics 0172, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    16. Felix S.F. Schaff, 2023. "The Unequal Spirit of the Protestant Reformation: Particularism and Wealth Distribution in Early Modern Germany," Working Papers 0239, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    17. Anthony Edo & Jacques Melitz, 2023. "Wealth and shifting demand pressures on the price level in England after the Black Death," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 17(1), pages 91-124, January.
    18. Milanovic, Branko, 2009. "Global inequality and the global inequality extraction ratio: the story of the past two centuries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5044, The World Bank.
    19. Galli, Stefania & Dimitrios, Theodoridis, & Rönnbäck, Klas, 2024. "Thriving in a declining economy - Elite persistence in the West Indies, 1760-1914," Göteborg Papers in Economic History 37, University of Gothenburg, Unit for Economic History.
    20. Edward L. Glaeser, 2013. "A Nation Of Gamblers: Real Estate Speculation And American History," NBER Working Papers 18825, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Blomqvist, Christopher & Enflo, Kerstin & Jakobsson, Andreas & Åström, Kalle, 2023. "Reading the ransom: Methodological advancements in extracting the Swedish Wealth Tax of 1571," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • N13 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: Pre-1913

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:107898. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.