Law and Transaction Costs in the Ancient Economy

by: Kehoe, D.P. Ratzan, D.M. Yiftach, U.

Price: 121,90 EURO

1 copy in stock

 Transaction costs (TC) are the “friction” in an economic system, and their analysis is vital to understanding institutional design and economic performance. Law and Transaction Costs in the Ancient Economy is the first volume to collect specific studies from a transaction cost perspective. The volume offers models of this new way of looking at ancient evidence, and suggests ways in which traditional subject areas might inform problems in contemporary economics and legal studies.After the editors? methodological introduction, the contributors investigate the roles and effects of transaction costs in fourth-century Athens, Ptolemaic Egypt, the Roman Empire, and late antiquity, on the basis of legal texts, papyri, and inscriptions. Collected here are some of the leading voices on TC analysis in ancient history, as well as established scholars, including several who do not usually publish in English: Alain Bresson, Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci, Rudolf Haensch, Dennis Kehoe, François Lerouxel, J. G. Manning, Brian Muhs, Josiah Ober, David M. Ratzan, Gerhard Thür, and Uri Yiftach.This volume will speak to those who identify with traditional subject areas, like epigraphy or Greek law, and will also demonstrate the value of experimenting with this new way of looking at ancient evidence.

Contents:
Introduction : transaction costs, ancient history, and the law / David Ratzan, Dennis Kehoe, and Uri Yiftach
Transaction costs in Athenian law / Gerhard Thür
Access, fairness, and transaction costs: Nikophon's law on silver coinage (Athens, 375-4 B.C.E.) / Josiah Ober
Transaction costs and institutional change in Egypt, ca. 1070-525 B.C.E. / Brian Muhs
Ptolemaic governance and transaction costs / J. G. Manning
The cost of getting money in early Ptolemaic Egypt : the case of P.Cair.Zen. 1 59021 (258 B.C.E.) / Alain Bresson
The Grammatikon : some considerations on the feeing policies of legal documents in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods / Uri Yiftach
The Vivliothēkē enktēseōn and transaction costs in the credit market of Roman Egypt (30 B.C.E.- ca. 170 C.E.) / F. Lerouxel
Transaction costs and contract in Roman Egypt : a case study in negotiating the right of repossession / David Ratzan
Contracts, agency, and transaction costs in the Roman economy / Dennis Kehoe
From free to fee : judicial fees and other litigation costs during the high empire and late antiquity / R. Haensch
The economic perspective : demand and supply in the reduction of transaction costs in the ancient world / Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci

The papers in this collection are the product of a conference titled "Transaction Costs in the Ancient World" organized by David Ratzan and Uri Yiftach. The conference was held on 27-29 July 2009 at the Center for Hellenic Studies of Harvard University in Washington, DC, with the financial support of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) of New York University. This conference was one in a series of colloquia held since 2008 by the research group Legal Documents in Ancient Societies (LDAS)." -- Acknowledgments

eries:
Law and society in the ancient world

vi, 300 pages ; 24 cm.

Law and Transaction Costs in the Ancient Economy

by: Kehoe, D.P. Ratzan, D.M. Yiftach, U.

• ISBN-13: 9780472119608 / 978-0-472-11960-8
• ISBN-03: 0472119605 / 0-472-11960-5
• University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 2015

Price: 121,90 EURO

1 copy in stock