Gilles Bransbourg

Gilles Bransbourg studied Economics, Mathematics and Statistics in Paris at École Polytechnique, Institut d'Études Politiques and École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique between 1983 and 1990. After 15 years in the Banking industry, he has recently completed a PhD at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris with Jean-Michel Carrié, focused on Roman Economic History. His work concentrates on linking numerical information of the ancient economy with social, political and military evolutions in order to achieve a better understanding of some of the trends they display. Framing the way wealth was produced, exchanged, levied, offered, transported and plundered during ancient times leads to the reevaluation of some traditional debates, covering for instance the question of the balance of power between central bureaucracy and local elites in the Roman world, or the material factors at work that supported or impeded the relative rise of various late Roman Christian churches. Moving forward, the question of economic and monetary growth will become central to his project. For 2011-2013 he will mainly be working at the American Numismatic Society on a project that will digitize their entire Roman coin collection, the third largest in the world.