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The Forbes 400, the Pareto power-law and efficient markets

Author

Listed:
  • O. S. Klass
  • O. Biham
  • M. Levy
  • O. Malcai
  • S. Solomon

Abstract

Statistical regularities at the top end of the wealth distribution in the United States are examined using the Forbes 400 lists of richest Americans, published between 1988 and 2003. It is found that the wealths are distributed according to a power-law (Pareto) distribution. This result is explained using a simple stochastic model of multiple investors that incorporates the efficient market hypothesis as well as the multiplicative nature of financial market fluctuations. Copyright EDP Sciences/Società Italiana di Fisica/Springer-Verlag 2007

Suggested Citation

  • O. S. Klass & O. Biham & M. Levy & O. Malcai & S. Solomon, 2007. "The Forbes 400, the Pareto power-law and efficient markets," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 55(2), pages 143-147, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eurphb:v:55:y:2007:i:2:p:143-147
    DOI: 10.1140/epjb/e2006-00396-1
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Marcello D’Amato & Christian Di Pietro & Marco M. Sorge, 2024. "Left and right: a tale of two tails of the wealth distribution," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 78(4), pages 1389-1433, December.
    2. Kaizoji, Taisei & Leiss, Matthias & Saichev, Alexander & Sornette, Didier, 2015. "Super-exponential endogenous bubbles in an equilibrium model of fundamentalist and chartist traders," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 289-310.
    3. Sorin Solomon & Nataša Golo, 2015. "Microeconomic structure determines macroeconomic dynamics: Aoki defeats the representative agent," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 10(1), pages 5-30, April.
    4. Jess Benhabib & Alberto Bisin & Shenghao Zhu, 2011. "The Distribution of Wealth and Fiscal Policy in Economies With Finitely Lived Agents," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(1), pages 123-157, January.
    5. 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.
    6. Shenghao Zhu & Alberto Bisin & Jess Benhabib, 2014. "The Wealth Distribution in Bewley Models with Investment Risk," 2014 Meeting Papers 617, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    7. Westermeier, Christian, 2016. "Estimating top wealth shares using survey data - An empiricist's guide," Discussion Papers 2016/21, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.
    8. Benhabib, Jess & Bisin, Alberto & Zhu, Shenghao, 2015. "The wealth distribution in Bewley economies with capital income risk," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 159(PA), pages 489-515.
    9. William Latham & Christian Le Bas, 2011. "Causes, Consequences and Dynamics of ‘Complex’ Distributions of Technological Activities: The Case of Prolific Inventors," Chapters, in: Cristiano Antonelli (ed.), Handbook on the Economic Complexity of Technological Change, chapter 9, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Raphaele Chappe & Willi Semmler, 2019. "Financial Market as Driver for Disparity in Wealth Accumulation—A Receding Horizon Approach," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 54(3), pages 1231-1261, October.
    11. Aloys Prinz, 2016. "Do capitalistic institutions breed billionaires?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 1319-1332, December.
    12. Hisano, Ryohei & Mizuno, Takayuki, 2011. "Sales distribution of consumer electronics," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 390(2), pages 309-318.
    13. Jess Benhabib & Alberto Bisin, 2018. "Skewed Wealth Distributions: Theory and Empirics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(4), pages 1261-1291, December.
    14. Natasa Golo & Guy Kelman & David S. Bree & Leanne Usher & Marco Lamieri & Sorin Solomon, 2015. "Many-to-one contagion of economic growth rate across trade credit network of firms," Papers 1506.01734, arXiv.org.
    15. Tomson Ogwang, 2011. "Power laws in top wealth distributions: evidence from Canada," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 41(2), pages 473-486, October.
    16. Hawkins, Raymond J. & Aoki, Masanao & Roy Frieden, B., 2010. "Asymmetric information and macroeconomic dynamics," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(17), pages 3565-3571.
    17. Ogwang, Tomson, 2013. "Is the wealth of the world’s billionaires Paretian?," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 392(4), pages 757-762.
    18. Christian Pietro & Marco M. Sorge, 2018. "Stochastic dominance and thick-tailed wealth distributions," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 123(2), pages 141-159, March.
    19. Francisco Cardoso, Ben-Hur & Gonçalves, Sebastián & Iglesias, José Roberto, 2023. "Why equal opportunities lead to maximum inequality? The wealth condensation paradox generally solved," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).

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