The Affine Wealth Model: An agent-based model of asset exchange that allows for negative-wealth agents and its empirical validation

We present a stochastic, agent-based, binary-transaction Asset-Exchange Model (AEM) for wealth distribution that allows for agents with negative wealth. This model retains certain features of prior AEMs such as redistribution and wealth-attained advantage, but it also allows for shifts as well as scalings of the agent density function. We derive the Fokker-Planck equation describing its time evolution and we describe its numerical solution, including a methodology for solving the inverse problem of finding the model parameters that best match empirical data. Using this methodology, we compare the steady-state solutions of the Fokker-Planck equation with data from the United States Survey of Consumer Finances over a time period of 27 years. In doing so, we demonstrate agreement with empirical data of an average error less than 0.16\% over this time period. We present the model parameters for the US wealth distribution data as a function of time under the assumption that the distribution responds to their variation adiabatically. We argue that the time series of model parameters thus obtained provides a valuable new diagnostic tool for analyzing wealth inequality.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure

The Nonuniversality of Wealth Distribution Tails Near Wealth Condensation Criticality

In this work, we modify the affine wealth model of wealth distributions to examine the effects of nonconstant redistribution on the very wealthy. Previous studies of this model, restricted to flat redistribution schemes, have demonstrated the presence of a phase transition to a partially wealth-condensed state, or "partial oligarchy," at the critical value of an order parameter. These studies have also indicated the presence of an exponential tail in wealth distribution precisely at criticality. Away from criticality, the tail was observed to be Gaussian. In this work, we generalize the flat redistribution within the affine wealth model to allow for an essentially arbitrary redistribution policy. We show that the exponential tail observed near criticality in prior work is, in fact, a special case of a much broader class of critical, slower-than-Gaussian decays that depend sensitively on the corresponding asymptotic behavior of the progressive redistribution model used. We thereby demonstrate that the functional form of the tail of the wealth distribution in a near-critical society is not universal in nature but rather entirely determined by the specifics of public policy decisions. This is significant because most major economies today are observed to be near-critical.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figure