4 research outputs found
Dynamics of Wealth Inequality
We study an agent-based model of evolution of wealth distribution in a
macro-economic system. The evolution is driven by multiplicative stochastic
fluctuations governed by the law of proportionate growth and interactions
between agents. We are mainly interested in interactions increasing wealth
inequality that is in a local implementation of the accumulated advantage
principle. Such interactions destabilise the system. They are confronted in the
model with a global regulatory mechanism which reduces wealth inequality. There
are different scenarios emerging as a net effect of these two competing
mechanisms. When the effect of the global regulation (economic interventionism)
is too weak the system is unstable and it never reaches equilibrium. When the
effect is sufficiently strong the system evolves towards a limiting stationary
distribution with a Pareto tail. In between there is a critical phase. In this
phase the system may evolve towards a steady state with a multimodal wealth
distribution. The corresponding cumulative density function has a
characteristic stairway pattern which reflects the effect of economic
stratification. The stairs represent wealth levels of economic classes
separated by wealth gaps. As we show, the pattern is typical for macro-economic
systems with a limited economic freedom. One can find such a multimodal pattern
in empirical data, for instance, in the highest percentile of wealth
distribution for the population in urban areas of China.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures (references added, some material moved to
appendix
Replication Data for: What Content Drives Political Polarization? Comparing the Effects of In-Group Praise, Outgroup Bashing, and Policy Information on Attitude Polarization
Data to replicate the results presented in "What Content Drives Political Polarization? Comparing the Effects of In-Group Praise, Outgroup Bashing, and Policy Information on Attitude Polarization