Mark Buchanon: Ubiquity and Pareto's Distribution

I finally read Mark Buchanon's article Pareto's distribution noted in Rebecca's blog. It's a short summary of an interesting effect: wealth distribution curves tend to have the shape, though they have varying amounts of inequality of wealth.

The finding suggests that the basic inequality in wealth distribution seen in most societies may have little to do with differences in the backgrounds and talents of their citizens. Rather, the disparity appears to be something akin to a law of economic life that emerges naturally as an organizational feature of a network

This is one of many examples of networks of interaction causing this "power-law" distribution shape. Mark's book Ubiquity covers this in detail. I read it last year, after ordering it from amazon.co.uk because it was first released by a British publishing house, and found it very interesting.

June 10, 2002 10:41 PM