IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/phsmap/v392y2013i4p813-823.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Econophysical visualization of Adam Smith’s invisible hand

Author

Listed:
  • Cohen, Morrel H.
  • Eliazar, Iddo I.

Abstract

Consider a complex system whose macrostate is statistically observable, but yet whose operating mechanism is an unknown black-box. In this paper we address the problem of inferring, from the system’s macrostate statistics, the system’s intrinsic force yielding the observed statistics. The inference is established via two diametrically opposite approaches which result in the very same intrinsic force: a top-down approach based on the notion of entropy, and a bottom-up approach based on the notion of Langevin dynamics. The general results established are applied to the problem of visualizing the intrinsic socioeconomic force–Adam Smith’s invisible hand–shaping the distribution of wealth in human societies. Our analysis yields quantitative econophysical representations of figurative socioeconomic forces, quantitative definitions of “poor” and “rich”, and a quantitative characterization of the “poor-get-poorer” and the “rich-get-richer” phenomena.

Suggested Citation

  • Cohen, Morrel H. & Eliazar, Iddo I., 2013. "Econophysical visualization of Adam Smith’s invisible hand," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 392(4), pages 813-823.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:392:y:2013:i:4:p:813-823
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2012.11.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437112009703
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.physa.2012.11.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mantegna,Rosario N. & Stanley,H. Eugene, 2007. "Introduction to Econophysics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521039871.
    2. Alfarano, Simone & Milakovic, Mishael, 2008. "Does classical competition explain the statistical features of firm growth?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 101(3), pages 272-274, December.
    3. Garibaldi,Ubaldo & Scalas,Enrico, 2010. "Finitary Probabilistic Methods in Econophysics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521515597.
    4. Alfarano, Simone & Milaković, Mishael & Irle, Albrecht & Kauschke, Jonas, 2012. "A statistical equilibrium model of competitive firms," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 136-149.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Luckstead, Jeff & Devadoss, Stephen, 2017. "Pareto tails and lognormal body of US cities size distribution," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 465(C), pages 573-578.
    2. Smerlak, Matteo, 2016. "Thermodynamics of inequalities: From precariousness to economic stratification," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 441(C), pages 40-50.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eliazar, Iddo I. & Cohen, Morrel H., 2013. "On the physical interpretation of statistical data from black-box systems," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 392(13), pages 2924-2939.
    2. Mundt, Philipp & Alfarano, Simone & Milaković, Mishael, 2020. "Exploiting ergodicity in forecasts of corporate profitability," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    3. Ellis Scharfenaker, 2022. "Statistical Equilibrium Methods In Analytical Political Economy," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 276-309, April.
    4. Eliazar, Iddo, 2014. "From entropy-maximization to equality-maximization: Gauss, Laplace, Pareto, and Subbotin," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 415(C), pages 479-492.
    5. Mundt, Philipp & Förster, Niels & Alfarano, Simone & Milaković, Mishael, 2014. "The real versus the financial economy: A global tale of stability versus volatility," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 8, pages 1-26.
    6. Scharfenaker, Ellis, 2020. "Implications of quantal response statistical equilibrium," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    7. David Vidal-Tomás & Simone Alfarano, 2020. "An agent-based early warning indicator for financial market instability," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 15(1), pages 49-87, January.
    8. Eliazar, Iddo, 2017. "Inequality spectra," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 469(C), pages 824-847.
    9. Scharfenaker, Ellis & dos Santos, Paulo L., 2015. "The distribution and regulation of Tobin’s q," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 191-194.
    10. David Vidal-Tomás & Alba Ruiz-Buforn & Omar Blanco-Arroyo & Simone Alfarano, 2022. "A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Growth and Profit Rate Distribution: The Spanish Case," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-20, March.
    11. Oh, Ilfan, 2019. "Autonomy of profit rate distribution and its dynamics from firm size measures: A statistical equilibrium approach," BERG Working Paper Series 146, Bamberg University, Bamberg Economic Research Group.
    12. Philipp Mundt & Simone Alfarano & Mishael Milakovic, 2016. "Gibrat’s Law Redux: think profitability instead of growth," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 25(4), pages 549-571.
    13. Mundt, Philipp & Oh, Ilfan, 2019. "Asymmetric competition, risk, and return distribution," BERG Working Paper Series 145, Bamberg University, Bamberg Economic Research Group.
    14. Halvarsson, Daniel, 2019. "Asymmetric Double Pareto Distributions: Maximum Likelihood Estimation with Application to the Growth Rate Distribution of Firms," Ratio Working Papers 327, The Ratio Institute.
    15. Gregor Semieniuk & Ellis Scharfenaker, 2014. "A Bayesian Latent Variable Mixture Model for Filtering Firm Profit Rate," SCEPA working paper series. 2014-1, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    16. Einar Erlingsson & Simone Alfarano & Marco Raberto & Hlynur Stefánsson, 2013. "On the distributional properties of size, profit and growth of Icelandic firms," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 8(1), pages 57-74, April.
    17. Halvarsson, Daniel, 2013. "Identifying High-Growth Firms," Ratio Working Papers 215, The Ratio Institute.
    18. Jangho Yang, 2018. "Information Theoretic Approaches In Economics," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 940-960, July.
    19. Mundt, Philipp & Oh, Ilfan, 2019. "Asymmetric competition, risk, and return distribution," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 29-32.
    20. Paulo L. dos Santos & Jangho Yang, 2019. "The persistent and informative distribution of returns on capital," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 156-165.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:392:y:2013:i:4:p:813-823. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/physica-a-statistical-mechpplications/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.