Income Inequality in Ancient Empires: Replication Package

The emergence of vast territorial empires is a recurring development in the history of human civilization. Their ability to extract resources from their subjects, and to redistribute them, is also an ability to achieve higher levels of economic inequality. Here we explore for the first time how imperial structures contributed to set the level of inequality in two ancient empires, the Roman Empire ca. 165 CE and the Chinese Han Empire ca. 2 CE. We find that the Han Empire was, overall, more unequal and extractive than the Roman Empire. Other empires, however, were even more extractive, as shown by a comparison with the Aztec Empire ca. 1492. We argue that higher inequality increased the potential for political instability and the collapse of empires.