Real wages in early economies: Evidence for living standards from 1800 BCE to 1300 CE

Real wages in early economies: Evidence for living standards from 1800 BCE to 1300 CE

Scheidel, Walter

Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics, September 2009

Abstract

Price and wage data from Roman Egypt in the first three centuries CE indicate levels of real income for unskilled workers that are comparable to those implied by price and wage data in Diocletian