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Instability and concentration in the distribution of wealth

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  • Fernholz, Ricardo
  • Fernholz, Robert
Abstract
We consider a setup in which infinitely lived households face idiosyncratic investment risk and show that in this case the equilibrium distribution of wealth becomes increasingly right-skewed over time until wealth concentrates entirely at the top. The households in our setup are identical in terms of their patience and their abilities, and we assume that there are no redistributive mechanisms—neither explicit in the form of government tax or fiscal policies, nor implicit in the form of limited intergenerational transfers. Our results demonstrate that the presence of such redistributive mechanisms alone ensures the stability of the distribution of wealth over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Fernholz, Ricardo & Fernholz, Robert, 2014. "Instability and concentration in the distribution of wealth," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 251-269.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:44:y:2014:i:c:p:251-269
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jedc.2014.05.001
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    Cited by:

    1. Christophe Chorro, 2015. "A Simple Probabilistic Approach of the Yard-Sale Model," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 15062, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    2. Chorro, Christophe, 2016. "A simple probabilistic approach of the Yard-Sale model," Statistics & Probability Letters, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 35-40.
    3. Fischer, Thomas, 2017. "Thomas Piketty and the rate of time preference," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 111-133.
    4. Yang, Xiaoliang & Zhou, Peng, 2022. "Wealth inequality and social mobility: A simulation-based modelling approach," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 307-329.
    5. Alan G. Isaac, 2021. "Wealth Inequality and the Financial Accumulation Process," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 47(3), pages 430-448, June.
    6. Ricardo T. Fernholz, 2016. "Empirical Methods for Dynamic Power Law Distributions in the Social Sciences," Papers 1602.00159, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2016.
    7. Fernholz, Ricardo T., 2016. "A Model of economic mobility and the distribution of wealth," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 168-192.
    8. Christophe Chorro, 2015. "A Simple Probabilistic Approach of the Yard-Sale Model," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-01222500, HAL.
    9. Yuri Biondi & Simone Righi, 2019. "Inequality, mobility and the financial accumulation process: a computational economic analysis," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 14(1), pages 93-119, March.
    10. Nicolas Bouleau & Christophe Chorro, 2015. "The impact of randomness on the distribution of wealth: Some economic aspects of the Wright-Fisher diffusion process," Post-Print halshs-01162452, HAL.
    11. Christophe Chorro, 2015. "A Simple Probabilistic Approach of the Yard-Sale Model," Post-Print halshs-01222500, HAL.
    12. 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.
    13. Bouleau, Nicolas & Chorro, Christophe, 2017. "The impact of randomness on the distribution of wealth: Some economic aspects of the Wright–Fisher diffusion process," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 479(C), pages 379-395.
    14. Boehl, Gregor & Fischer, Thomas, 2017. "Capital Taxation and Investment: Matching 100 Years of Wealth Inequality Dynamics," Working Papers 2017:8, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    15. Ricardo T. Fernholz, 2016. "A Statistical Model of Inequality," Papers 1601.04093, arXiv.org.
    16. Nicolas Bouleau & Christophe Chorro, 2017. "The impact of randomness on the distribution of wealth: Some economic aspects of the Wright-Fisher diffusion process," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-01138383, HAL.
    17. Ricardo T. Fernholz & Robert Fernholz, 2017. "Zipf's Law for Atlas Models," Papers 1707.04285, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2020.
    18. Nicolas Bouleau & Christophe Chorro, 2015. "The impact of randomness on the distribution of wealth: Some economic aspects of the Wright-Fisher diffusion process," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 15024r, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, revised Jul 2015.
    19. Böhl, Gregor & Fischer, Thomas, 2017. "Can taxation predict US top-wealth share dynamics?," IMFS Working Paper Series 118, Goethe University Frankfurt, Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability (IMFS).
    20. Nicolas Bouleau & Christophe Chorro, 2017. "The impact of randomness on the distribution of wealth: Some economic aspects of the Wright-Fisher diffusion process," Post-Print hal-01138383, HAL.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wealth distribution; Inequality; Incomplete markets;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity

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