In parallel to the development of democracy, the Athenians of the Classical period established a series of sophisticated economic institutions for the times through which they developed a maritime and commercially oriented economy. This book provides a thorough analysis of this transformation and the functioning of the Athenian economy during the Classical period. Through the approach of New Institutional Economics (NIE), the book explores the establishment of key institutions including property rights protection, the legal protection of commercial contracts, prices determined by the forces of demand and supply, institutions against profiteering, banking services, the provision of loans through interest rates, consumer credit, insurance companies and a (primitive) version of joint stock companies. Furthermore, the book focuses on the structure of the public sector, on how the state budget was determined and on how decisions on public revenues and expenditures were made. It also provides an integrated and detailed analysis of the social welfare policies that were implemented through the provision of a variety of public goods in Classical Athens. Moreover, it focuses on a series of socioeconomic aspects such as the social status of women, slaves and foreigners and the viewpoints of prominent Athenian philosophers regarding economic organization. Finally, the book investigates whether an Athenian economic-political model of governance, based on a combination of advanced economic institutions (of free market type logic, even if in a primordial form) and direct democracy principles, can provide any lessons for modern societies. The book will be of great interest to readers of the economy, history and society of Ancient Greece, as well as economic historians and ancient historians and policymakers more broadly.
About the Author: Emmanouil M.L. Economou is an Assistant Professor of History of Economic Institutions at the Department of Economics, University of Thessaly (Greece). He is a member of the Laboratory of Economic Policy and Strategic Planning (L.E.P.S.PLAN) at the same department. He is also a member of the Laboratory of Intelligence and Cyber-Security, Department of International and European Studies, University of Piraeus (Greece). He also teaches at the M.Sc. program at the Cosmos Open University, Cyprus.
His research focuses on Economic History, Institutional Economics, International Political Economy and Defense Economics. He is an author of 9 books (5 in English and 4 in Greek) in acclaimed publishing houses such as Routledge, Springer and Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
He has contributed to the international academic bibliography with 38 papers in peer review quality academic journals, such as the: Journal of Institutional Economics (3), Defence and Peace Economics (2), Sustainability, European Journal of Law and Economics, Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy (2), Economics of Governance, Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Homo Oeconomicus, Journal of Risk and Financial Management (4) etc.
He is also a reviewer in the following highly distinguished journals: American Political Science Review, Journal of Institutional Economics, Cliometrica, Investigaciones de Historia Económica - Economic History Research (EHR) and Journal of Risk and Financial Management.
He has further contributed to the international academic bibliography with 25 papers in English and Greek collective volumes. Furthermore, he has 79 publications of Discussion Papers (64 in English, in the IDEAS RePec - Munich International Library and 15 as "ΚΟΙΔΑ" Discussion papers published by the L.E.P.S.PLAN Laboratory. He has participated in 42 international and Greek conferences.
