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Full-Text Articles in Other Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Masked Instability: Within-Sector Financial Risk In The Presence Of Wealth Inequality, Youngna Choi Jun 2018

Masked Instability: Within-Sector Financial Risk In The Presence Of Wealth Inequality, Youngna Choi

Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

We investigate masked financial instability caused by wealth inequality. When an economic sector is decomposed into two subsectors that possess a severe wealth inequality, the sector in entirety can look financially stable while the two subsectors possess extreme financially instabilities of opposite nature, one from excessive equity, the other from lack thereof. The unstable subsector can result in further financial distress and even trigger a financial crisis. The market instability indicator, an early warning system derived from dynamical systems applied to agent-based models, is used to analyze the subsectoral financial instabilities. Detailed mathematical analysis is provided to explain what financial …


Simplicity And Sustainability: Pointers From Ethics And Science, Mehrdad Massoudi, Ashwin Vaidya Apr 2018

Simplicity And Sustainability: Pointers From Ethics And Science, Mehrdad Massoudi, Ashwin Vaidya

Department of Mathematics Facuty Scholarship and Creative Works

In this paper, we explore the notion of simplicity. We use definitions of simplicity proposed by philosophers, scientists, and economists. In an age when the rapidly growing human population faces an equally rapidly declining energy/material resources, there is an urgent need to consider various notions of simplicity, collective and individual, which we believe to be a sensible path to restore our planet to a reasonable state of health. Following the logic of mathematicians and physicists, we suggest that simplicity can be related to sustainability. Our efforts must therefore not be spent so much in pursuit of growth but in achieving …