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Edit: my post below is not true. The overall distribution is indeed close to Gaussian; see here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31861089 https://news.ycom
by MontyCarloHall 4y ago
Edit: my post below is not true. The overall distribution is indeed close to Gaussian; see here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31861089 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31861089
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The CLT simply says that the distribution of a sum of random variables will be Gaussian (as the number of random variables being summed tends to infinity).
It is not obvious to me that the agent-level difference equations in this simulation would naturally lead to the overall distribution of wealth being a sum of random variables.
- Mattasher 4y agoThe wealth each "person" has after N rounds is equal to N trials where the expectation is zero each time, and the rounds are independent, at least according to the setup described in the title and first paragraph.
- MontyCarloHall 4y agoThat determines the distribution for each individual, not necessarily the entire population. However, I think you are correct and I am wrong about the population level distribution; I wrote and ran the simulation myself and got a Gaussian-looking distribution at the population level.