The Dynamics of Pareto Distributed Wealth in a Small Open Economy

Abstract

We study a small open economy displaying Pareto-distributed wealth resulting from random death. The government runs a distribution scheme on inheritance. We present the mathematical background that allows to study the dynamics of means. We end up with ordinary differential equations for the mean of age and of individual and government wealth. We also study distributional dynamics analytically. Starting from any distribution of age and wealth, the aggregate distribution converges, both on a transition path towards a steady state and on a transition path towards balanced growth, to an exponential distribution of age and a Pareto-distribution of wealth. The findings are illustrated for different distribution schemes.