ELFT HÍRADÓ

["Va'n Pe'ter" <vpethm AT gmail.com>]

Termodinamikai Szakcsoport Szeminariuma
Meghivo

2008. augusztus 29. pentek, 15h 30.
Hely: ELTE, TTK, 3.92.

J. Rosenblatt
Institut National de Sciences Appliquées, F35043 Rennes Cedex, France


INEQUALITIES IN ECONOMICS. THE ROLE OF DISTINGUISHABILITY


Abstract

Inequalities between individuals, firms, countries, arise in
practically all domains of human activity, like incomes, risk of
disease, hothouse gas production, degree of development, etc. We
discuss here how to define and measure such inequalities, in
particular with reference to income inequality indicators. Beyond the
practical interest of such indicators, we remark that they involve two
fundamental categories of economics: money and individuals.
Concerning money, we point out that its purchasing power does not
necessarily coincide with its nominal value. We propose instead to
measure the purchasing power of a given number of monetary units by
the number of spending choices it allows. There is no a priori limit,
other than total available wealth, to individual incomes. Individuals,
on the other hand, occupy each a definite position in society, but
economic life does not depend on what their names are. Monetary units
are indistinguishable from one another, and the same applies to
individuals. The situation is similar to that of quantum statistical
mechanics, where elementary particles called bosons can, like monetary
units, accumulate in a single state, while fermions can occupy only
one state at a time, in the same way as individuals occupy one job at
a time.
On the basis of this analogy, we develop a model of income
inequalities in society. We obtain thereby an optimal distribution
probability depending on three parameters. The latter result from
three constraints, number of individuals, available money amounts and
resulting inequality. We apply this model to incomes in France, U. S.
A. and Hungary and to per capita electricity consumption in the world.
In all cases we obtain very good fits for the whole distribution.

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Kozreadta: Ván Péter