https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2007-00343-8
Kinetic exchange models for income and wealth distributions
1
Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics Division and Centre for Applied Mathematics and Computational Science, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, 1/AF Bidhannagar, Kolkata, 700064, India
2
Economic Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, 203 B. T. Road, Kolkata, 700108, India
Corresponding author: a bikask.chakrabarti@saha.ac.in
Received:
11
September
2007
Published online:
8
December
2007
Increasingly, a huge amount of statistics have been gathered which clearly indicates that income and wealth distributions in various countries or societies follow a robust pattern, close to the Gibbs distribution of energy in an ideal gas in equilibrium. However, it also deviates in the low income and more significantly for the high income ranges. Application of physics models provides illuminating ideas and understanding, complementing the observations.
PACS: 89.20.Hh – World Wide Web, Internet / 89.75.Hc – Networks and genealogical trees / 89.75.Da – Systems obeying scaling laws / 43.38.Si – Telephones, earphones, sound power telephones, and intercommunication systems
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2007