Thermodynamics 2.0 Program: Sessions and Abstracts

Mon - Wed, June 22 - June 24 , 2020 , Massachusetts, USA

Session T15: Econophysics | Sociophysics

10:45-12:00. Wednesday June 24, 2020

Chair: Emmanuel Haven

Title: New developments in agent-based models of wealth distribution.

Presenter:

  • Bruce Boghosian

(Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA)

Bio-sketch

Bruce Boghosian, PhD is a Professor of Mathematics at Tufts University, where he also co-directs the Data Analytics program in the School of Arts & Sciences, and holds secondary appointments in Computer Science and Physics. He was elected to Fellowship in the American Physical Society in 2000, named a Distinguished Scholar of Tufts University in 2010, a Fellow of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life in 2018, and a Fellow of Tufts' Data Intensive Studies Center in 2019. He served as chair of Mathematics at Tufts University from 2006 to 2010, and as President of the American University of Armenia from 2010 to 2014. His principal research interests are applied dynamical systems and probability theory, statistical mechanics, kinetic theory, fluid dynamics, and agent-based models of the economy.

Author(s):

  • Bruce Boghosian

(Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA)

images

Abstract:T15.W144

Abstract

Agent-based models of wealth distribution, employing simple, idealized binary transactions between pairs of agents were first proposed in the 1980s, and methods of statistical physics have been applied to their analysis since the turn of the century. This presentation will describe one such model, the recently developed Affine Wealth Model, that (i) demonstrates remarkable agreement with empirical wealth data, (ii) exhibits rich phenomenology, including a second-order phase transition to a wealth-condensed state, (iii) sheds new light on the precise nature of oligarchy and the role of chance in wealth accumulation, (iv) is predictive of measurable quantities such as upward mobility, agent flux, and wealth flux, and (v) suggests new empirical tests of microeconomic theory.

 

Keywords: wealth distribution, wealth inequality, agent-based models, asset-exchange models, upward mobility, wealth condensation, oligarchy, microeconomic theory