Deriving the size distribution of personal wealth from “the rich get richer, the poor get poorer”
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10142477 |
|---|---|
| Authors | J Angle (0000-0002-6603-3695, Economic Research Service, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1993 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 27-46 |
| Publication date | 1993-07-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Mathematical Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-250X • E-ISSN: 1545-5874 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0022250x.1993.9990114 |
| OpenAlex | W2094953288 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 13 |
The folk saying, “the rich get richer, the poor get poorer”, implies that wealth flows from poorer to richer hands, a concentrating diffusion. Its academic statement is the Surplus Theory of Social Stratification. Angle (1986) abstracted this theory as an interacting particle system model of wealth distribution, the Inequality Process. In it, random pairs continually compete for each other's wealth. The richer party has a greater chance of winning. The loser gives up a proportion of wealth. Angle (1986) found the equilibrium distribution of the Inequality Process numerically. This paper derives this distribution algebraically, showing that the Inequality Process implies that personal wealth is distributed as a mixture of negative binomial probability functions (NB pf s). The NB pf is closely related to the two parameter gamma probability density function (pdf), what Angle (1986) fitted to the equilibrium distribution of the process. The solution is given in terms of the parameters of the Inequality Process. Making wealth less fugitive by putting it into the form of human capital has the same effect on the shape of the wealth distribution as reducing the advantage of being richer in an encounter
Distribution (mathematics · Econometrics · Economics · Function (biology · Inequality · Mathematical analysis · Mathematical economics · Negative binomial distribution · Personal income · Poisson distribution · Statistics · Complex Systems and Time Series Analysis · Mathematics · Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence · Statistical Distribution Estimation and Applications
Generation And Properties Of Income Distribution Functions
Some Generalized Functions for the Size Distribution of Income
Some Generalized Functions for the Size Distribution of Income
Income and Wealth Distribution, Inequality and Poverty
Income distribution in historical perspective
What Do We Really Know about Wages? The Importance of Nonreporting and Census Imputation
Cours d'Economie Politique
Burial Customs as an Archaeological Source [and Comments]
The social organization at Branč
The Surplus Theory of Social Stratification and the Size Distribution of Personal Wealth
| Citations per year | 0.15 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2000 - 2012 (13) |
| Highly cited | No |