Wealth and Power: Ancient Elites and Today’s Billionaires
This discussion brings together leading voices from history, economics, and journalism to explore how businesspeople and economic elites have shaped politics and society—from antiquity to the present.
Guido Alfani will offer a long-run historical perspective on wealth concentration and its societal impacts in the West. Mary Beard will reflect on the identities and influence of the wealthy in the ancient world. Louis Hyman will bring a perspective on wealth, inequality, and the development of American capitalism. The panel will be moderated by Mario Macis, Professor and Economics Area Chair at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.
Together, the panelists will consider how the concentration of wealth has influenced governance, public discourse, and social structures across time, and what insights the past can offer for understanding today’s democratic challenges.
Panelists:
Guido Alfani, Professor of Economic History, Bocconi University
Guido Alfani is professor of economic history at Bocconi University, in Milan. He is also an Affiliated Scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality in New York and at the Stone Center on Wealth Inequality and Mobility in Chicago. An economic and social historian and a historical demographer, Alfani publishes extensively on Italy, Europe, and beyond, specializing in economic inequality and social mobility, in the history of epidemics and famines, and in social alliance systems and social networks. He has been the principal investigator of two large-scale projects funded by the European Research Council (ERC), EINITE-Economic Inequality across Italy and Europe, 1300-1800, and SMITE-Social Mobility and Inequality across Italy and Europe, 1300-1800. His most recent books are The Lion’s Share. Inequality and the Rise of the Fiscal State in Preindustrial Europe (CUP 2019, with Matteo Di Tullio) and As Gods Among Men. A History of the Rich in the West (PUP 2023).
Mary Beard, Professor of Classics, University of Cambridge
Mary Beard is a professor of classics at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Newnham College. A specialist in the history and culture of ancient Rome, Beard’s scholarship focuses on the political, social, and cultural life of the Roman world and on how the ancient past is interpreted in the modern world. She has taught classics at both King’s College London and Cambridge and has long played an important role in public scholarship on the ancient world. Beard has served as classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement and is a fellow of the British Academy. Her books include SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town, and Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World. She is also widely known for bringing classical history to broad audiences through essays, lectures, and television documentaries. She has received many honors for her contributions to scholarship and public life, including appointment as Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE).
Louis Hyman, Professor of Political Economy in History and Professor at the SNF Agora Institute, Johns Hopkins University.
Louis Hyman is the Dorothy Ross Professor of Political Economy in History at Johns Hopkins University and a professor at the SNF Agora Institute. A historian of American capitalism, his scholarship examines the evolution of debt, labor, business, and economic institutions in the United States. He previously served as the Maurice and Hinda Neufeld Founders Professor in Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He is the author of several acclaimed books, including Debtor Nation: The History of America in Red Ink, Borrow: The American Way of Debt, and Temp: The Real Story of What Happened to Your Salary, Benefits, and Job Security. His writing has appeared in publications including the New York Times, Enterprise & Society,Reviews in American History, CNBC, and the Wilson Quarterly. Through his scholarship and public writing, he has contributed to major conversations about debt, work, inequality, and the development of modern American capitalism.
Moderator:
Mario Macis, Professor of Economics, Johns Hopkins University
Mario Macis is professor of economics at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, where he also serves as Economics Area Chair. He is affiliated with the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and with the National Bureau of Economic Research. He has a broad range of research interests at the intersection of markets, policy, and society, spanning health economics, behavioral economics, and public policy, with a focus on incentives, institutions, and social outcomes. His work has appeared in leading journals, including the American Economic Review and Science. Macis has advised organizations including the World Bank, the International Labor Organization, the World Health Organization, and the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.