IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/iimkoz/v2y2013i2p117-134.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How to Win Acceptance of the Inequality Process as Economics?

Author

Listed:
  • John Angle

    (John Angle is at The Inequality Process Institute, Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania. E-mail: angle@inequalityprocess.org)

Abstract

The Inequality Process (IP) is a particle system model similar to that of the Kinetic Theory of Gases. The IP is a parsimonious model of competition among people for wealth. The IP explains a wide scope of stable patterns in the distribution of personal income and wealth. Econophysicists have adopted the IP as part of their field, but the IP has been ignored or rejected by economists even though economists claim expertise on the distribution of personal income and wealth. The academic discipline of statistics in the US claims expertise on data analysis. Yet from the mid-twentieth century on, advances in computationally intensive algorithms for data analysis were developed largely outside of the discipline of statistics. Not until experts on this new paradigm of data analysis diverted resources away from traditional, old paradigm statisticians, was the new paradigm widely accepted in the discipline of statistics, even though a few statisticians had contributed to computationally intensive data analysis all along. This article’s thesis is that the IP will follow a path into economics similar to that taken by computationally intensive data analysis into statistics, once useful applications of the IP are found and experts on the IP divert resources away from economists. That day is not at hand. There are no applications of the IP to business or government at present. One conceivable application of the IP to market research, small area estimation of personal income distribution, is suggested.

Suggested Citation

  • John Angle, 2013. "How to Win Acceptance of the Inequality Process as Economics?," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 2(2), pages 117-134, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:iimkoz:v:2:y:2013:i:2:p:117-134
    DOI: 10.1177/2277975213507831
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2277975213507831
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2277975213507831?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Angle, 2007. "The Macro Model of the Inequality Process and The Surging Relative Frequency of Large Wage Incomes," Papers 0705.3430, arXiv.org.
    2. Salem, A B Z & Mount, T D, 1974. "A Convenient Descriptive Model of Income Distribution: The Gamma Density," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 42(6), pages 1115-1127, November.
    3. Angle, John & Nielsen, Francois & Scalas, Enrico, 2009. "The Kuznets Curve and the Inequality Process," MPRA Paper 16058, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 29 Jun 2009.
    4. Angle, John, 2006. "The Inequality Process as a wealth maximizing process," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 367(C), pages 388-414.
    5. Kirk Hamilton & Gang Liu, 2013. "Human Capital, Tangible Wealth, and the Intangible Capital Residual," OECD Statistics Working Papers 2013/2, OECD Publishing.
    6. Gallegati, Mauro & Keen, Steve & Lux, Thomas & Ormerod, Paul, 2006. "Worrying trends in econophysics," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 370(1), pages 1-6.
    7. Adrian Dragulescu & Victor M. Yakovenko, 2000. "Statistical mechanics of money," Papers cond-mat/0001432, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2000.
    8. Hamilton, Kirk & Liu, Gang, 2013. "Human capital, tangible wealth, and the intangible capital residual," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6391, The World Bank.
    9. 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.
    10. Levy, Frank & Murnane, Richard J, 1992. "U.S. Earnings Levels and Earnings Inequality: A Review of Recent Trends and Proposed Explanations," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(3), pages 1333-1381, September.
    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.
    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. G. Dimarco & L. Pareschi & G. Toscani & M. Zanella, 2020. "Wealth distribution under the spread of infectious diseases," Papers 2004.13620, arXiv.org.
    4. Shu-Heng Chen & Sai-Ping Li, 2011. "Econophysics: Bridges over a Turbulent Current," Papers 1107.5373, arXiv.org.
    5. D. S. Quevedo & C. J. Quimbay, 2019. "Piketty's second fundamental law of capitalism as an emergent property in a kinetic wealth-exchange model of economic growth," Papers 1903.00952, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2019.
    6. Adams Vallejos & Ignacio Ormazabal & Felix A. Borotto & Hernan F. Astudillo, 2018. "A new $\kappa$-deformed parametric model for the size distribution of wealth," Papers 1805.06929, arXiv.org.
    7. E. Samanidou & E. Zschischang & D. Stauffer & T. Lux, 2007. "Agent-based Models of Financial Markets," Papers physics/0701140, arXiv.org.
    8. Ellis Scharfenaker, 2022. "Statistical Equilibrium Methods In Analytical Political Economy," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 276-309, April.
    9. Costas Efthimiou & Adam Wearne, 2016. "Household Income Distribution in the USA," Papers 1602.06234, arXiv.org.
    10. 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.
    11. Lux, Thomas, 2008. "Applications of statistical physics in finance and economics," Kiel Working Papers 1425, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    12. John Angle, 2007. "The Macro Model of the Inequality Process and The Surging Relative Frequency of Large Wage Incomes," Papers 0705.3430, arXiv.org.
    13. Thomas Lux, 2009. "Applications of Statistical Physics in Finance and Economics," Chapters, in: J. Barkley Rosser Jr. (ed.), Handbook of Research on Complexity, chapter 9, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Victor M. Yakovenko & J. Barkley Rosser, 2009. "Colloquium: Statistical mechanics of money, wealth, and income," Papers 0905.1518, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2009.
    15. Vallejos, Adams & Ormazábal, Ignacio & Borotto, Félix A. & Astudillo, Hernán F., 2019. "A new κ-deformed parametric model for the size distribution of wealth," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 514(C), pages 819-829.
    16. E. Samanidou & E. Zschischang & D. Stauffer & T. Lux, 2001. "Microscopic Models of Financial Markets," Papers cond-mat/0110354, arXiv.org.
    17. Xing, Xiaoyun & Xiong, Wanting & Chen, Liujun & Chen, Jiawei & Wang, Yougui & Stanley, H. Eugene, 2018. "Money circulation and debt circulation: A restatement of quantity theory of money," Economics Discussion Papers 2018-1, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    18. 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.
    19. Alessandro Pluchino & Alessio Emanuele Biondo & Andrea Rapisarda, 2018. "Talent Versus Luck: The Role Of Randomness In Success And Failure," Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(03n04), pages 1-31, May.
    20. Xing, Xiaoyun & Wang, Mingsong & Wang, Yougui & Stanley, H. Eugene, 2020. "Credit creation under multiple banking regulations: The impact of balance sheet diversity on money supply," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 720-735.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economics; econophysics; income distribution; inequality; paradigm; particle system; scientific revolutions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B5 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches
    • C63 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computational Techniques
    • C81 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Microeconomic Data; Data Access
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:sae:iimkoz:v:2:y:2013:i:2:p:117-134. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.