Public Economics and History A Review of Fiscal Regimes and the Political Economy of Premodern States, Edited by Andrew Monson and Walter Scheidel

Fiscal Regimes and the Political Economy of Premodern States greatly expands our knowledge of the history of premodern fiscal systems and raises important questions about the political economy of premodern states. Answering those questions can help explain how states developed the capacity to tax; w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of Economic Literature Vol. 55; no. 4; pp. 1556 - 1569
Main Author Hoffman, Philip T.
Format Book Review Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Nashville American Economic Association 01.12.2017
Subjects
Economic theory
Government spending
Political economy
Taxation
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Summary:Fiscal Regimes and the Political Economy of Premodern States greatly expands our knowledge of the history of premodern fiscal systems and raises important questions about the political economy of premodern states. Answering those questions can help explain how states developed the capacity to tax; why tax levels and government-spending patterns varied greatly in the past, even though per capita incomes were similar; how government debt and representative institutions arose; and, last but not least, why some premodern states expanded and others collapsed. But firm answers to those questions will have to combine the history outlined in Fiscal Regimes and the Political Economy of Premodern States with systematic data and formal models of political economy.
ISSN:0022-0515
2328-8175
DOI:10.1257/jel.20151348