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Pareto tails in socio-economic phenomena: A kinetic description

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  • Gualandi, Stefano
  • Toscani, Giuseppe

Abstract

Various phenomena related to socio-economic aspects of our daily life exhibit equilibrium densities characterized by a power law decay. Maybe the most known example of this property is concerned with wealth distribution in a western society. In this case the polynomial decay at infinity is referred to as Pareto tails phenomenon (Pareto, Cours d'économie politique, 1964). In this paper, the authors discuss a possible source of this behavior by resorting to the powerful approach of statistical mechanics, which enlightens the analogies with the classical kinetic theory of rarefied gases. Among other examples, the distribution of populations in towns and cities is illustrated and discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Gualandi, Stefano & Toscani, Giuseppe, 2018. "Pareto tails in socio-economic phenomena: A kinetic description," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 12, pages 1-17.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:ifweej:201831
    DOI: 10.5018/economics-ejournal.ja.2018-31
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    Cited by:

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    3. Xia Zhou & Shaoyong Lai, 2023. "The mutual influence of knowledge and individual wealth growth," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 96(6), pages 1-22, June.
    4. Gualandi, Stefano & Toscani, Giuseppe, 2019. "Size distribution of cities: A kinetic explanation," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 524(C), pages 221-234.
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    6. G. Dimarco & L. Pareschi & G. Toscani & M. Zanella, 2020. "Wealth distribution under the spread of infectious diseases," Papers 2004.13620, arXiv.org.
    7. J. Franceschi & L. Pareschi & M. Zanella, 2022. "From agent-based models to the macroscopic description of fake-news spread: the role of competence in data-driven applications," Partial Differential Equations and Applications, Springer, vol. 3(6), pages 1-26, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    kinetic models; Boltzmann-type equations; multi-agent systems; economic modeling equation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C02 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - General - - - Mathematical Economics
    • C6 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling
    • C68 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computable General Equilibrium Models

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