W. Christian

Wealth and Income in The U.S.

There are many resources that document the nature of wealth and income inequality in the United States and elsewhere. For example, see the discussion of income inequality in the United States and a recent report by the Pew Research Center.

Income or wealth? The terms “income” and “wealth” are frequently used synonymously, but represent different quantities. Wealth includes all assets such as savings, real estate, and personal property. Income is due to wages, interest, dividends, etc. One advantage of considering income rather than wealth is that data on income is readily available. For example, the United States Internal Revenue Service has much data available in the form of a spreadsheet. Much historical information about income inequality in the United States can be obtained from census data.

The model we have discussed is an example of an agent-based model and has been mainly developed by physicists. It is commonly referred to as the asset exchange or yard sale model. See the bibliography to read some of the original papers.