Although the model of Axtell and Epstein might seem to have little relation to reality (it is not much more than a computer game), its results illustrate a profound principle. The poorer agents are at a disadvantage, compared to the richer ones, and, as a result, tend to lose ground. By contrast, the richer agents tend to increase their stores of resources with time. In the language of dynamical sciences, this is called a “positive feedback loop”—the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. Social scientists came up with another name for it, the “Matthew principle,” because the New Testament
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