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Wealth distribuition models - an application of statistical physics to economy

By: Maria Augusta Santos
From: The Theoretical Physics Center at University of Porto
At: Complexo Interdisciplinar, Anfiteatro
[2006-03-22] 11:30

Statistical physics models and techniques have been successfuly used in the study of economic and social systems - a new crossdisciplinary research area called econophysics. The study of models designed to explain the observed distribution of wealth in societies is an active area in econophysics. In this talk the main features of wealth distribution in real systems will be introduced and compared with the results from models of wealth exchange. An agent model of wealth exchange in families, where the wealth dynamics is coupled to the (evolving) family network, will be presented and shown to reasonably agree with real data on individual wealth. The statistical properties of the generated network are also consistent with first-degree family relations.