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Emergence of income inequality: Origin, distribution and possible policies

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  • Tian, Songtao
  • Liu, Zhirong

Abstract

Wealth and income inequality has attracted intensive interest in recent years due to its great significance both in reality and theory. Inspection on individual behaviors in a microscopic view would be useful in clarifying possible reasons for inequality and proper policies for reducing inequality and poverty. This paper presents an inhomogeneous agent-based model to explore the emergence of income inequality, in which individuals with varied qualities work, consume and invest. In despite of the small attribute difference for individuals, large income/wealth inequality and class differentiation naturally occur through a mechanism of capital (investment) income, which shares some analogy to the endogenous growth. The obtained income distribution is well described with an exponential law at smaller values and a power law at large values. Education, which is modeled as increasing the average productivity and decreasing the productivity width, is able to improve the equality and lower the Gini coefficient. The uplift of salary level hampers the speed of investment (industrialization) and the short-term income, but it brings long-term benefits of higher efficiency and equality. These results support the potential capacity of the model as a basic and open framework to investigate multifarious questions regarding income inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Tian, Songtao & Liu, Zhirong, 2020. "Emergence of income inequality: Origin, distribution and possible policies," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 537(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:537:y:2020:i:c:s0378437119315729
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2019.122767
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    2. Tao, Yong, 2021. "Boltzmann-like income distribution in low and middle income classes: Evidence from the United Kingdom," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 578(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Income inequality; Agent-based model; Fat tail; Gini coefficient; Simulation; Econophysics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • E27 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • E64 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Incomes Policy; Price Policy
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

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