Bounding the approach to oligarchy in a variant of the yard-sale model

David W. Cohen and Bruce M. Boghosian

Papers from arXiv.org

Abstract: We present analytical results for the Gini coefficient of economic inequality under the dynamics of a modified Yard-Sale Model of kinetic asset exchange. A variant of the Yard-Sale Model is introduced by modifying the underlying binary transaction of the classical system. It is shown that the Gini coefficient is monotone under the resulting dynamics but the approach to oligarchy, as measured by the Gini index, can be bounded by a first-order differential inequality used in conjunction with the differential Gronwall inequality. This result is in the spirit of entropy -- entropy production inequalities for diffusive PDE. The asymptotics of the modified system, with a redistributive tax, are derived and shown to agree with the original, taxed Yard-Sale Model, which implies the modified system is as suitable for matching real wealth distributions. The Gini -- Gini production inequality is shown to hold for a broader class of models.

Date: 2023-10, Revised 2024-04
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Published in SIAM J. Appl. Math. Vol. 84, No. 5 (2024), pp. 2051-2066

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