A simple mechanism causing wealth concentration

Abstract

We study mechanisms leading to wealth condensation. As a natural starting point, our model adopts a neoclassical point of view, i.e., we completely ignore work, production, and productive relations, and focus only on bilateral link between two randomly selected agents. We propose a simple matching process with deterministic trading rules and random selection of trading agents. Furthermore, we also neglect the internal characteristic of traded goods and analyse only the relative wealth changes of each agent. This is often the case in financial markets, where a traded good is money itself in various forms and various maturities. We assume that agents trade according to the rules of utility and decision theories. Agents possess incomplete knowledge about market conditions, but the market is in equilibrium. We show that these relatively frugal assumptions naturally lead to a wealth condensation. Moreover, we discuss the role of wealth redistribution in such a model.