Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/339354 
Year of Publication: 
2026
Series/Report no.: 
CITP Working Paper No. 029
Publisher: 
Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy (CITP), University of Sussex Business School, Brighton
Abstract: 
Why did enduring socio-economic inequality emerge between the 4th and 3rd millennium BCE, after millennia of substantial egalitarianism? We test the hypothesis of inequality being a by-product of state formation in an archeological panel covering Southern Iraq between 3900 and 1900 BCE. We implement a difference-in-differences design that compares areas that became part of a state in the first half of the 3rd millennium, during the first phase of substantial state expansion, with the rest of the a rea. State formation led to a persistent increase in socio-economic inequality over the following millennium in the form of labor specialization, income inequality and slavery. Early states protected trade and property rights, which led to the early increase in income inequality which then crystallized into persistent socioeconomic differences as captured by slavery.
Subjects: 
Inequality
State Formation
Ancient Iraq
JEL: 
D63
D72
D73
N45
N75
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.