Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8bljj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-14T01:55:31.607Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Institutions, taxation, and market relationships in ancient Athens

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2010

CARL HAMPUS LYTTKENS
CARL HAMPUS LYTTKENS*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Lund University, Sweden
*
*Email: carl_hampus.lyttkens@nek.lu.se
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

This paper explores the institutional and economic development in ancient Athens from around 600 BC into the fourth century, a period during which the Athenians experienced oligarchy, tyranny, a gradually evolving but eventually far-reaching male democracy, followed by a return to more influence for the elite. Concomitantly, economic life changed qualitatively and quantitatively. Self-sufficient farming gradually gave way to market relationships and there was substantial economic growth. This analysis of institutional changes in Athens emphasizes the importance of credible commitments from those in power to other groups in society. It is furthermore likely that the increasing reliance on market relationships gradually transformed individual behaviour and individual beliefs, leading to changes in the formal and informal rules in society. Taxation played an important role: it pushed people into market relationships, illustrated the need for credible commitments, and helps to explain why foreigners were so prominent in trade in ancient Athens.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , December 2010 , pp. 505 - 527
Copyright
Copyright © The JOIE Foundation 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Acemoglu, D. et al. (2005), ‘Income and Democracy’, CEPR Discussion Paper Series No. 5273.Google Scholar
Acemoglu, D. and Robinson, J. A. (2006), The Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Amemiya, T. (2007), Economy and Economics of Ancient Greece, Abingdon: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andreades, A. M. (1979) [1933]), A History of Greek Public Finance, New York: Arno Press.Google Scholar
Andrewes, A. (1982), ‘The Tyranny of Pisistratus’, The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. III.3, 2nd edn, Cambridge University Press, pp. 392–416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bitros, G. C. and Karayiannis, A. D. (2008), ‘Values and Institutions as Determinants of Entrepreneurship in Ancient Athens’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 4: 205–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1986), Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1990), The Logic of Practice, Cambridge: Polity Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burke, E. M. (1992), ‘The Economy of Athens in the Classical Era: Some Adjustments to the Primitivist Model’, Transactions of the American Philological Association, 122: 199–226.Google Scholar
Capps, E. (1943), ‘Greek Inscriptions: A New Fragment of the List of Victors at the City Dionysia’, Hesperia, 12: 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christesen, P. (2003), ‘Economic Rationalism in Fourth Century BCE Athens’, Greece & Rome, 50: 31–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, E. E. (1992), Athenian Economy & Society: A Banking Perspective, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Davies, J. K. (1967), ‘Demosthenes on Liturgies: A Note’, Journal of Hellenic Studies, 87: 33–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, J. K. (1981), Wealth and the Power of Wealth in Classical Athens, Salem, New Hampshire: The Ayer Company.Google Scholar
Davies, J. K. (2003), ‘Democracy without Theory’, in Derow, P. and Parker, R. (eds.), Herodotus and his World, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 319–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, J. K. (2007), ‘Classical Greece: Production’, in Scheidel, W., Morris, M., and Saller, R. (eds.), The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World, Cambridge University Press, pp. 333–361.Google Scholar
Finley, M. I. (1970), ‘Aristotle and Economic Analysis’, Past and Present, No. 47: 3–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finley, M. I. (1999 [1973]), The Ancient Economy, London: Chatto & Windus.Google Scholar
Fleck, R. K. and Hanssen, F. A. (2006), ‘The Origins of Democracy: A Model with Application to Ancient Greece’, Journal of Law and Economics, 49: 115–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foxhall, L. (1997), ‘A View from the Top’, in Mitchell, L. G. and Rhodes, P. J. (eds.), The Development of the Polis in Archaic Greece, London: Routledge, pp. 113–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gabrielsen, V. (1986), ‘ΦANEPA and AΦANHΣ ΟYΣIA in Classical Athens’, Classica et Mediaevalia, 37: 99–114.Google Scholar
Gabrielsen, V. (1994), Financing the Athenian Fleet. Public Taxation and Social Relations, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Greif, A. (1994)a, ‘Cultural Beliefs and the Organization of Society: A Historical and Theoretical Reflection on Collectivist and Individualist Societies’, Journal of Political Economy, 102: 912–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greif, A. (1994)b, ‘On the Political Foundations of the Late Medieval Commercial Revolution: Genoa during the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries’, Journal of Economic History, 54: 271–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greif, A. (2005), ‘Commitment, Coercion, and Markets: The Nature and Dynamics of Institutions Supporting Exchange’, in Ménard, C. and Shirley, M. M. (eds.), Handbook of New Institutional Economics, Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 727–786.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greif, A. (2006), Institutions and the Path to the Modern Economy, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, M. H. (1987), The Athenian Assembly, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hansen, M. H. (1991), The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Harris, E. M. (2002), ‘Workshop, Marketplace and Household’, in Cartledge, P., Cohen, E. E., and Foxhall, L. (eds.), Money, Labour and Land, Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 67–99.Google Scholar
Hodgson, G. M. (1997), ‘The Ubiquity of Habits and Rules’, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 21: 663–684.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaiser, Brooks A. (2007), ‘The Athenian Trierarchy: Mechanism Design for the Private Provision of Public Goods’, The Journal of Economic History, 67: 445–480.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, H. S. (2002), ‘Small Change and the Moneyed Economy’, in Cartledge, P., Cohen, E. E., and Foxhall, L. (eds.), Money, Labour and Land, Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 44–1.Google Scholar
Levi, M. (1988), Of Rule and Revenue, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, D. M. (1988), ‘The Tyranny of the Pisistratidae’, The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. IV, 2nd edn, Cambridge University Press, pp. 287–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lieberman, E. S. (2003), Race and Regionalism in the Politics of Taxation in Brazil and South Africa, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindbladh, E. and Lyttkens, C. H. (2002), ‘Habit Versus Choice: The Process of Decision-Making in Health-Related Behaviour’, Social Science & Medicine, 55: 451–465.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Loomis, W. T. (1998), Wages, Welfare Costs and Inflation in Classical Athens, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Lyttkens, C. H. (1994), ‘A Predatory Democracy? An Essay on Taxation in Classical Athens’, Explorations in Economic History, 31: 62–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manville, P. B. (1997 [1990]), The Origins of Citizenship in Ancient Athens, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Millet, P. C. (2000), ‘Mogens Hansen and the Labelling of Athenian Democracy’, in Flensted-Jensen, P., Heine Nielsen, T., and Rubinstein, L. (eds.), Polis and Politics: Studies in Ancient Greek History, Copenhagen, pp. 337–362.Google Scholar
Morris, I. (2000), Archaeology as Cultural History, Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Morris, I. (2002), ‘Hard Surfaces’, in Cartledge, P., Cohen, E. E., and Foxhall, L. (eds.), Money, Labour and Land, Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 8–43.Google Scholar
Morris, I. (2004), ‘Economic Growth in Ancient Greece’, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 160: 709–742.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, I. (2009), ‘The Greater Athenian State’, in Morris, I. and Scheidel, W. (eds.), The Dynamics of Ancient Empires, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 99–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, I. and Manning, J. G. (2005), ‘Introduction’, in Manning, J. G. and Morris, I. (eds.), The Ancient Economy: Evidence and Models, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 1–44.Google Scholar
Morris, I. and Weingast, B. R. (2004), ‘Views and Comments on Institutions, Economics, and the Ancient Mediterranean World: Introduction’, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 160: 702–708.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, O. (1990), ‘Cities of Reason’, in Murray, O. and Price, S. (eds.), The Greek City from Homer to Alexander, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, O. (1993), Early Greece, 2nd edn, London: Fontana Press.Google Scholar
Möller, A. (2007), ‘Classical Greece: Distribution’, Scheidel, W., Morris, I., and Saller, R. (eds.), The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 362–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
North, D. C. (1981), Structure and Change in Economic History, New York: W.W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
North, D. C. (1990), Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
North, D. C. (2005), Understanding the Process of Economic Change, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
North, D. C. and Weingast, B. R. (1989), ‘Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England’, The Journal of Economic History, 49: 803–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ober, J. (1989), Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ober, J. (1996), The Athenian Revolution, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ober, J. (2008), Democracy and knowledge, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, M. (2000), ‘Dictatorship, Democracy, and Development’, in Olson, M. and Kähkönen, S. (eds.), A Not-So-Dismal Science, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 119–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osborne, R. (1991), ‘Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Subsistence: Exchange and Society in the Greek City’, in Rich, J. and Wallace-Hadrill, A. (eds.), City and Country in the Ancient World, London: Routledge, pp. 119–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osborne, R. (1996)a, Greece in the Making 1200–479 BC, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Osborne, R. (1996)b, ‘Pots, Trade and the Archaic Greek Economy’, Antiquity, 70: 31–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ostwald, M. (1988), ‘The Reform of the Athenian state by Cleisthenes’, The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. IV, 2nd edn, Cambridge University Press, pp. 113–136.Google Scholar
Paldam, M. and Gundlach, E. (2008), ‘Two Views on Institutions and Development: The Grand Transition vs the Primacy of Institutions’, Kyklos, 61: 65–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reed, C. M. (2003), Maritime Traders in the Ancient Greek World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, E. W. (1997), The First Democracies: Early Popular Government Outside Athens, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.Google Scholar
Salmon, J. (2003), ‘Cleisthenes (of Athens) and Corinth’, in Derow, P. and Parker, R. (eds.), Herodotus and His World, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 219–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snodgrass, A. (1980), Archaic Greece: The Age of Experiment, London: J M Dent & Sons.Google Scholar
Thomas, C. G. and Conant, C. (1999), Citadel to City-State, Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Von Reden, S. (1997), ‘Money, Law and Exchange: Coinage in the Greek Polis’, Journal of Hellenic Studies, 117: 154–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aristophanes, Knights, in Aristophanes, The Acharnians, The Clouds, The Knights, The Wasps. The Loeb Classical Library, London: Harvard University Press, (1992).Google Scholar
Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution, in Aristotle, Vol. XX, The Loeb Classical Library, London: Harvard University Press, (1981).Google Scholar
Aristotle, Politics, in Aristotle Vol. 21, The Loeb Classical Library, London: Harvard University Press, (1977).Google Scholar
Demosthenes XXXVI (For Phormio), in Demosthenes Vol. IV, The Loeb Classical Library, London: Harvard University Press, (1984).Google Scholar
Herodotos I, VI–VIII, in Herodotus, Vols I, III, I, The Loeb Classical Library, London: Harvard University Press, (1990), 1982, 1981.Google Scholar
Thukydides I, III, VI, in Thucydides, Vols I–III, The Loeb Classical Library, London: William Heineman, (1991, 1958, 1959).Google Scholar
Xenophon, Oeconomicus, in Xenophon IV, The Loeb Classical Library, London: Harvard University Press, (1979).Google Scholar
Aristophanes, Knights, in Aristophanes, The Acharnians, The Clouds, The Knights, The Wasps. The Loeb Classical Library, London: Harvard University Press, (1992).Google Scholar
Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution, in Aristotle, Vol. XX, The Loeb Classical Library, London: Harvard University Press, (1981).Google Scholar
Aristotle, Politics, in Aristotle Vol. 21, The Loeb Classical Library, London: Harvard University Press, (1977).Google Scholar
Demosthenes XXXVI (For Phormio), in Demosthenes Vol. IV, The Loeb Classical Library, London: Harvard University Press, (1984).Google Scholar
Herodotos I, VI–VIII, in Herodotus, Vols I, III, I, The Loeb Classical Library, London: Harvard University Press, (1990), 1982, 1981.Google Scholar
Thukydides I, III, VI, in Thucydides, Vols I–III, The Loeb Classical Library, London: William Heineman, (1991, 1958, 1959).Google Scholar
Xenophon, Oeconomicus, in Xenophon IV, The Loeb Classical Library, London: Harvard University Press, (1979).Google Scholar