Crises: Ancient and Modern Understanding an ancient Roman crisis can help us move beyond our own

Abstract

The paper takes the crisis of the late Roman Republic as a parallel to analyse the current economic and financial crises. It looks at how the Romans tried – but ultimately failed – to solve their issues. The paper covers executive pay, corporate governance and leadership behavior, and provides the historical evidence in detail and in reference. Collective collusion proved to be the most important cause of the crisis. The article takes position in the current debate among scholars and practitioners about the lessons from the current crises and uses the historical parallels to support or refute proposed solutions to these crises. Seven concrete proposals on regulation, corporate governance, executive compensation and management education are made.

Keywords:

• economic crisis
• financial crisis
• governance
• leadership
• executive pay
• Rome