WEALTH DISTRIBUTIONS IN ASSET EXCHANGE MODELS

A model for the evolution of the wealth distribution in an economicall y interacting population is introduced, in which a specified amount of assets are exchanged between two individuals when they interact. The resulting wealth distributions are determined fur a variety of exchang e rules. For ''random'' exchange, either individual is equally likely to gain in a trade, while ''greedy'' exchange, the richer individual g ains. When the amount of asset traded is fixed, random exchange leads to a Gaussian wealth distribution, while greedy exchange gives a Fermi -like scaled wealth distribution in the long-time limit. Multiplicativ e processes are also investigated, where the amount of asset exchanged is a finite fraction of the wealth of one of the traders. For random multiplicative exchange, a steady state occurs, while in greedy multip licative exchange a continuously evolving power law wealth distributio n arises.