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Estimating Income Inequality in Rural Roman Egypt

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  • Erfurth, Philipp

Abstract

This study examines income inequality in rural Roman Egypt in 1st century AD on the basis of data from papyrological evidence for the village of Tebtunis. It identifies and collects data for three social classes - manual workers, priests, and village elites – to assemble a social table for the population of Tebtunis. To measure inequality using the Gini coefficient and the inequality extraction ratio (IER), the study proposes the use of a daily social table to better take account of daily wages for manual workers within the context of the ancient world. The collected evidence suggests that inequality and the degree of extraction of incomes by elites was likely relatively low, reflecting the rural setting and limited heterogeneity in incomes at the top, compared to urban settings and the Roman empire as a whole. (Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality Working Paper)

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  • Erfurth, Philipp, 2024. "Estimating Income Inequality in Rural Roman Egypt," SocArXiv wrx9b, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:wrx9b
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/wrx9b
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