Research Seminar Environmental & Development Economics“Roman Trade Networks and Contemporary Economic Integration“Markus Ludwig (University of Bayreuth)

14. November 2018

The Research Seminar Environmental & Development Economics welcomes Markus Ludwig (University of Bayreuth), who will present his work on

“Roman Trade Networks and Contemporary Economic Integration”.

Place: Zentralbibliothek Recht, Rothenbaumchaussee 33 (Google Maps), Room Ro 33 BG 3/4
Hour: 12:15-13:45
We are looking forward to seeing you there!

Abstract
Economic linkages across European regions currently intensify as integration proceeds. Which regions integrate may however have been determined a long time ago. We study the effect of ancient Roman trade routes on contemporary ownership relations across Europe. Using gravity models, we first establish that the magnitude of bilateral trade between regions in the Roman Empire decreases in travel distance within the multi-modal Roman-era transport network calibrated to ancient transport technologies. Subsequently, we show that current-day bilateral ownership relationships across firms in the Orbis database evolve alongside these Roman-era least cost paths. Our findings hold conditional on Euclidean distance and cannot be fully explained by path dependence in the provision of transport infrastructure. Evidence from relations between firms located around the vanished Limes border support a view of persistence in the degree of European economic integration.