IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cuf/wpaper/762.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Rise of a Superpower: Endogenous Asymmetry in a Symmetric Mean Field Game of Militarization and Capital Accumulation

Author

Listed:
  • Heng-fu Zou

Abstract

This paper develops a dynamic mean field game model in which a superpower emerges endogenously from stochastic regime shifts in capital productivity and military effectiveness. Starting from a symmetric population, countries accumulate capital and arms under strategic external ities. Rare transitions into high-productivity regimes generate sustained divergence, concentrating power in a single dominant actor. We derive the coupled Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman and Fokker-Planck equations, simulate closed-form solutions, and illustrate how asymmetry arises without exogenous advantage. The framework provides a tractable foundation for analyzing unipolarity, arms races, and welfare divergence in decentralized strategic environments.

Suggested Citation

  • Heng-fu Zou, 2025. "The Rise of a Superpower: Endogenous Asymmetry in a Symmetric Mean Field Game of Militarization and Capital Accumulation," CEMA Working Papers 762, China Economics and Management Academy, Central University of Finance and Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:cuf:wpaper:762
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://down.aefweb.net/WorkingPapers/w762.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    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:cuf:wpaper:762. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Qiang Gao (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/emcufcn.html .

    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.