IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/phsmap/v392y2013i6p1393-1397.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A multi-agent dynamic model based on different kinds of bequests

Author

Listed:
  • Cui, Jian
  • Pan, Qiuhui
  • Qian, Qian
  • He, Mingfeng
  • Sun, Qilin

Abstract

We investigate how wealth transfer that happens at the end of an agent’s life affects its final distribution based on a multi-agent dynamic model. We discuss two kinds of wealth transfers: to a single agent and to charities. The first kind of bequest is common in our realistic world and is always regarded by the public as unequal inheritance. The bequests to charities will be gathered and then equally redistributed among the survivors in our model. We find that when all the decedents choose the second kind of bequest, the final distribution is the Gibbs exponential function. When all the decedents choose the first kind of bequest, the result is condensation that a single individual accumulates all the available wealth. When an increasing portion of decedents choose the one-heir bequests, the exponential distribution evolves towards a power law shape (accompanied by deteriorating inequality). This shape firstly appears from the intermediate range of wealth and extends towards the top end of the simulated distribution, while the distribution remains exponential for high values of the wealth. At the same time, the Gini coefficient increases and the wealth accumulation becomes serious. At last, we analyze the source of the inequality. We find that not only unequal inheritances, but also equal division of the charity’s wealth can relatively contribute to an inequality of wealth distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Cui, Jian & Pan, Qiuhui & Qian, Qian & He, Mingfeng & Sun, Qilin, 2013. "A multi-agent dynamic model based on different kinds of bequests," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 392(6), pages 1393-1397.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:392:y:2013:i:6:p:1393-1397
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2012.11.021
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437112009867
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.physa.2012.11.021?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fujiwara, Yoshi & Souma, Wataru & Aoyama, Hideaki & Kaizoji, Taisei & Aoki, Masanao, 2003. "Growth and fluctuations of personal income," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 321(3), pages 598-604.
    2. Anirban Chakraborti & Bikas K. Chakrabarti, 2000. "Statistical mechanics of money: How saving propensity affects its distribution," Papers cond-mat/0004256, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2000.
    3. Bernheim, B Douglas, 1991. "How Strong Are Bequest Motives? Evidence Based on Estimates of the Demand for Life Insurance and Annuities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(5), pages 899-927, October.
    4. Drăgulescu, Adrian & Yakovenko, Victor M., 2001. "Exponential and power-law probability distributions of wealth and income in the United Kingdom and the United States," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 299(1), pages 213-221.
    5. Hegyi, Géza & Néda, Zoltán & Augusta Santos, Maria, 2007. "Wealth distribution and Pareto's law in the Hungarian medieval society," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 380(C), pages 271-277.
    6. Aoyama, Hideaki & Souma, Wataru & Fujiwara, Yoshi, 2003. "Growth and fluctuations of personal and company's income," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 324(1), pages 352-358.
    7. Clementi, F. & Gallegati, M., 2005. "Power law tails in the Italian personal income distribution," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 350(2), pages 427-438.
    8. Tomes, Nigel, 1981. "The Family, Inheritance, and the Intergenerational Transmission of Inequality," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(5), pages 928-958, October.
    9. A. Chatterjee & B. K. Chakrabarti, 2007. "Kinetic exchange models for income and wealth distributions," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 60(2), pages 135-149, November.
    10. Arnab Chatterjee & Bikas K. Chakrabarti, 2007. "Kinetic Exchange Models for Income and Wealth Distributions," Papers 0709.1543, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2007.
    11. A. Chakraborti & B.K. Chakrabarti, 2000. "Statistical mechanics of money: how saving propensity affects its distribution," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 17(1), pages 167-170, September.
    12. Ausloos, Marcel & Pe¸kalski, Andrzej, 2007. "Model of wealth and goods dynamics in a closed market," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 373(C), pages 560-568.
    13. Adrian Dragulescu & Victor M. Yakovenko, 2000. "Statistical mechanics of money," Papers cond-mat/0001432, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2000.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Costas Efthimiou & Adam Wearne, 2016. "Household Income Distribution in the USA," Papers 1602.06234, arXiv.org.
    2. Victor M. Yakovenko & J. Barkley Rosser, 2009. "Colloquium: Statistical mechanics of money, wealth, and income," Papers 0905.1518, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2009.
    3. Patriarca, Marco & Chakraborti, Anirban & Germano, Guido, 2006. "Influence of saving propensity on the power-law tail of the wealth distribution," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 369(2), pages 723-736.
    4. Boghosian, Bruce M. & Devitt-Lee, Adrian & Johnson, Merek & Li, Jie & Marcq, Jeremy A. & Wang, Hongyan, 2017. "Oligarchy as a phase transition: The effect of wealth-attained advantage in a Fokker–Planck description of asset exchange," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 476(C), pages 15-37.
    5. Ghosh, Asim & Chatterjee, Arnab & Inoue, Jun-ichi & Chakrabarti, Bikas K., 2016. "Inequality measures in kinetic exchange models of wealth distributions," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 451(C), pages 465-474.
    6. Brzezinski, Michal, 2014. "Do wealth distributions follow power laws? Evidence from ‘rich lists’," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 406(C), pages 155-162.
    7. Victor M. Yakovenko, 2012. "Applications of statistical mechanics to economics: Entropic origin of the probability distributions of money, income, and energy consumption," Papers 1204.6483, arXiv.org.
    8. Aydiner, Ekrem & Cherstvy, Andrey G. & Metzler, Ralf, 2018. "Wealth distribution, Pareto law, and stretched exponential decay of money: Computer simulations analysis of agent-based models," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 490(C), pages 278-288.
    9. Chakrabarti, Anindya S., 2011. "An almost linear stochastic map related to the particle system models of social sciences," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 390(23), pages 4370-4378.
    10. Düring, Bertram & Matthes, Daniel & Toscani, Giuseppe, 2008. "A Boltzmann-type approach to the formation of wealth distribution curves," CoFE Discussion Papers 08/05, University of Konstanz, Center of Finance and Econometrics (CoFE).
    11. Jan Lorenz & Fabian Paetzel & Frank Schweitzer, 2013. "Redistribution Spurs Growth by Using a Portfolio Effect on Risky Human Capital," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(2), pages 1-13, February.
    12. Soriano-Hernández, P. & del Castillo-Mussot, M. & Campirán-Chávez, I. & Montemayor-Aldrete, J.A., 2017. "Wealth of the world’s richest publicly traded companies per industry and per employee: Gamma, Log-normal and Pareto power-law as universal distributions?," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 471(C), pages 733-749.
    13. Troy Tassier, 2013. "Handbook of Research on Complexity, by J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. and Edward Elgar," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 39(1), pages 132-133.
    14. Anindya S. Chakrabarti, 2011. "An almost linear stochastic map related to the particle system models of social sciences," Papers 1101.3617, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2011.
    15. Antonio Doria, Francisco, 2011. "J.B. Rosser Jr. , Handbook of Research on Complexity, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK--Northampton, MA, USA (2009) 436 + viii pp., index, ISBN 978 1 84542 089 5 (cased)," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 78(1-2), pages 196-204, April.
    16. Chakrabarti, Anindya S. & Chakrabarti, Bikas K., 2010. "Statistical theories of income and wealth distribution," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 4, pages 1-31.
    17. Takeshi Kato, 2022. "Wealth Redistribution and Mutual Aid: Comparison using Equivalent/Nonequivalent Exchange Models of Econophysics," Papers 2301.00091, arXiv.org.
    18. Blair Fix, 2018. "Hierarchy and the power-law income distribution tail," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 471-491, September.
    19. Lux, Thomas, 2008. "Applications of statistical physics in finance and economics," Kiel Working Papers 1425, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    20. Jan Lorenz & Fabian Paetzel & Frank Schweitzer, 2012. "Redistribution spurs growth by using a portfolio effect on human capital," Papers 1210.3716, arXiv.org.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:392:y:2013:i:6:p:1393-1397. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/physica-a-statistical-mechpplications/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.