Based on the evidence left by the archaeological remains of the houses of the prosperous Roman town of Pompeii,Kron (2014) estimates that the mean household income of Pompeii was at 7,900 sestertii, a much higher than is implied by the GDP estimates for the whole Empire. Based on the distribution of house sizes from these archaeological remains, he also estimated a distribution of income that implies that Pompeii had a much larger middle-class than would be expected in the Scheidel–Friesen model. His estimates pointed to a level of living standards in Pompeii superior to 19th century Western Europe. He concluded that existing estimates of Roman GDP should be revised upwards.
