Income Inequality May Have Caused the Collapse of the Roman Empire and Han Dynasty

Photo credit: Bert Kaufmann via Flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0. Article by Rosie McCall. Discover Magazine – updated April 9, 2025. Research article: Nature Communications.

The Roman Empire and the Chinese Han Dynasty may have stood at opposite ends of the Eurasian continent, but they did experience one thing in common — high levels of income inequality. A team of researchers has demonstrated how large-scale resource extraction and redistribution across vast territories led to steep levels of income inequality on both counts — particularly in Han China. […]

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