The Poverty (and Wealth) of the Pre-industrial World: Inquiry on long-run economic development from 1st BC to 18th AD

The aim of this thesis is to investigate structural determinants of economic performance from Classical Age to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution with an interdisciplinary approach. To this end, I adopted an inter-temporal comparison covering around two thousands years, putting together Economics, History, and quantitative analysis. What emerges from my studies is that every period of pre-industrial history shows different way to lead economic performance that not always reflects the Malthusian model prediction. The ability of economy to positively respond to the fixity of land and to the diminishing returns of labor made the difference between societies that was trapped in the Malthusian stagnation and which do not. However, these dynamics emerge only when a long-run approach is adopted, allowing comparison between technologies, market structures and institutions in different periods. This thesis aims to show the potential emerging from exchanges and collaboration between economists, economic historians, and ancient historians in explaining the economic development in a more comprehensive manner.