Telling the tale of the wealth tail

Models designed to represent taxation and wealth redistribution could be adjusted to reflect a target level of wealth distribution

2012-07-30

(Press-News.org) A mathematical physicist and her colleague, both from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy, are about to publish a study in EPJ B¹ on a family of taxation and wealth redistribution models. The findings could lead to numerical simulations of potential wealth distribution scenarios playing out over the long term and could be used for policy decision making.

Maria Letizia Bertotti and Giovanni Modanese propose a mechanism of individual interaction of economic agents involved in wealth redistribution on a one-to-one level as a means of understanding their collective macroscopic behaviour. They rely on an analogy between agents interacting in markets and well-known models of particles interacting in gases.

One of the unique aspects of their approach is that their model differentiates groups of individuals into a finite number of separate classes, related to their level of wealth. In the family of models they devised, the number of individuals in each class varies over time due to the payment and redistribution of taxes. They have thus created three distinct scenarios by varying the parameters of the general framework governing wealth dynamics.

The authors found that some families of models exhibit power-law tails, and some do not. Power law tails represent the part of a society consisting of a limited number of individuals who have the most wealth. Several simulations suggest that the diversity of saving propensity among the individuals plays a definite role in the formation of fat tails where a greater number of individuals enjoy high levels of wealth.

The findings of this study could ultimately help examine how the spread of individuals varies among classes when the taxation rates relative to different income classes are varied. Or the results could help devise the most desirable taxation rate to achieve a given distribution of wealth.

### Reference 1. M. L. Bertotti, G. Modanese (2012). Exploiting the flexibility of a family of models for taxation and redistribution. European Physical Journal B, DOI 10.1140/epjb/e2012-30239-3

The full-text article is available to journalists on request.

For more information, please visit www.epj.org

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Brain development is delayed in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

2012-07-30

Philadelphia, PA, July 30, 2012 – Is attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) due to a delay in brain development or the result of complete deviation from typical development? In the current issue of Biological Psychiatry, Dr. Philip Shaw and colleagues present evidence for delay based on a study by the National Institutes of Health. The cerebral cortex is the folded gray tissue that makes up the outermost portion of the brain, covering the brain's inner structures. This tissue has left and right hemispheres and is divided into lobes. Each lobe performs specific ...

Archeologists unearth extraordinary human sculpture in Turkey

2012-07-30

A beautiful and colossal human sculpture is one of the latest cultural treasures unearthed by an international team at the Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP) excavation site in southeastern Turkey. A large semi-circular column base, ornately decorated on one side, was also discovered. Both pieces are from a monumental gate complex that provided access to the upper citadel of Kunulua, capital of the Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Patina (ca. 1000-738 BC). "These newly discovered Tayinat sculptures are the product of a vibrant local Neo-Hittite sculptural tradition," said Professor ...

In Massachusetts, 'individual mandate' led to decreased hospital productivity

2012-07-30

Philadelphia, Pa. (July 30, 2012) - As the "individual mandate" of the Affordable Care Act moves forward, debate and speculation continue as to whether universal health insurance coverage will lead to significant cost savings for hospitals. The assumption is that providing appropriate primary care will improve the overall health of the population, resulting in less need for hospital services and less severe illness among hospitalized patients. Findings from a recent study published in Health Care Management Review challenge that assumption. Health Care Management Review ...

Long-distance distress signal from periphery of injured nerve cells begins with locally made protein

2012-07-30

PHILADELPHIA (July 30, 2012)— When the longest cells in the body are injured at their farthest reaches, coordinating the cells' repair is no easy task. This is in part because these peripheral nerve cells can be extremely long – up to one meter in adult humans – which is a lot of distance for a molecular distress signal to cover in order to reach the "command center" of the cell's nucleus. Scientists have believed this process to be even more challenging because their textbook understanding for many years has been that the axons – the long extensions of nerve cells away ...

Obesity in type 2 diabetes: Recommendations from guidelines are largely consistent

2012-07-30

On 10th July 2012, the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) published the results of a literature search for evidence-based guidelines for the treatment of obesity in type 2 diabetes. The aim of the report was to identify those recommendations from current guidelines of high methodological quality that may be relevant for a possible new obesity module in the disease management programme (DMP) for type 2 diabetes. Diet, exercise and behavioural therapy generally advised IQWiG found that the recommendations of the various guidelines for the ...

Health coaches could be key to successful weight loss, study suggests

2012-07-30

(PROVIDENCE, R.I.) – Coaches can help athletes score touchdowns and perfect their golf swing, but can they also influence weight loss? Researchers from The Miriam Hospital's Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center say health coaches could play an important role in the battle of the bulge, according to the findings of a pilot study published online in the journal Obesity. In the first study of its kind, obese individuals participating in a low-intensity behavioral weight loss program who were supported by either a professional health coach or a peer coach lost clinically ...

Pollution can make citizens – both rich and poor – go green

2012-07-30

Nothing inspires environmentalism quite like a smog-filled sky or a contaminated river, according to a new study that also indicates that environmentalism isn't just for the prosperous. People living in China's cities who say they've been exposed to environmental harm are more likely to begreen: re-using their plastic grocery bags or recycling. Moreover, the study, published this week in the international journal AMBIO, indicates that the poor would sacrifice economic gain to protect their environment. "The human and natural worlds are tightly coupled and we cannot ...

Health care savings, naturally

2012-07-30

For millions of people around the world being sick doesn't mean making a trip to the local pharmacy for medicines like Advil and Nyquil. Instead it means turning to the forest to provide a pharmacopeia of medicines to treat everything from tooth aches to chest pains. But while questions persist about whether such natural remedies are as effective as their pharmacological cousins, one Harvard researcher is examining the phenomenon from a unique perspective, and trying to understand the economic benefits people receive by relying on such traditional cures. As reported ...

Higher retail wages correlate with lower levels of employee theft

2012-07-30

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A study co-written by a University of Illinois business professor shows that higher wages are associated with lower levels of employee theft, shedding light on the impact that compensation practices have on shaping employee honesty and ethical norms in organizations. Using data sets from the convenience-store industry, Clara Xiaoling Chen, a professor of accountancy, and co-author Tatiana Sandino, of the University of Southern California, found that after controlling for each store's employee characteristics, monitoring environment and socio-economic ...

Emotion detectives uncover new ways to fight-off youth anxiety and depression

2012-07-30

CORAL GABLES, FL (July 11, 2012)—Emotional problems in childhood are common. Approximately 8 to 22 percent of children suffer from anxiety, often combined with other conditions such as depression. However, most existing therapies are not designed to treat co-existing psychological problems and are therefore not very successful in helping children with complex emotional issues. To develop a more effective treatment for co-occurring youth anxiety and depression, University of Miami (UM) psychologist Jill Ehrenreich-May and her collaborator Emily L. Bilek analyzed the efficacy ...

Liver transplantation utilizing grafts donated after medical assistance in dying is feasible and has outcomes comparable to standard donation

Canada is failing the rising numbers of youth who use opioids

Opioid prescribing for pain is declining in Canada

[Press-News.org] Telling the tale of the wealth tail
Models designed to represent taxation and wealth redistribution could be adjusted to reflect a target level of wealth distribution

Telling the tale of the wealth tail

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: