dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaEconomic exchanges in a stratified society: End of the middle class?
| Authors | M. F. Laguna, S. Risau Gusman, J. R. Iglesias |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0505157 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0505157 |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.physa.2005.05.021 |
Abstract
We study the effect of the social stratification on the wealth distribution on a system of interacting economic agents that are constrained to interact only within their own economic class. The economical mobility of the agents is related to its success in exchange transactions. Different wealth distributions are obtained as a function of the width of the economic class. We find a range of widths in which the society is divided in two classes separated by a deep gap that prevents further exchange between poor and rich agents. As a consequence, the middle wealth class is eliminated. The high values of the Gini indices obtained in these cases indicate a highly unequal society. On the other hand, lower and higher widths induce lower Gini indices and a fairer wealth distribution.
{
"annotation_id": "8a77ea69-f999-4a67-b43e-469f40fd7436",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:00:56.867000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:00:56.867000Z",
"file_hash": "8d2328bf84bb0ec97b510f5ab0c86ca5f3d8eb51bb8862fb3dd2ca47cd5de19d",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "We study the effect of the social stratification on the wealth distribution\non a system of interacting economic agents that are constrained to interact\nonly within their own economic class. The economical mobility of the agents is\nrelated to its success in exchange transactions. Different wealth distributions\nare obtained as a function of the width of the economic class. We find a range\nof widths in which the society is divided in two classes separated by a deep\ngap that prevents further exchange between poor and rich agents. As a\nconsequence, the middle wealth class is eliminated. The high values of the Gini\nindices obtained in these cases indicate a highly unequal society. On the other\nhand, lower and higher widths induce lower Gini indices and a fairer wealth\ndistribution.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0505157",
"authors": [
"M. F. Laguna",
"S. Risau Gusman",
"J. R. Iglesias"
],
"categories": [
"physics.soc-ph",
"cond-mat.stat-mech",
"q-fin.GN"
],
"doi": "10.1016/j.physa.2005.05.021",
"title": "Economic exchanges in a stratified society: End of the middle class?",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0505157"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "eddd95b3-e1cf-4d68-b7a4-a964b17c26d5",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}