The EjsS Asset Exchange Model Package contains JavaScript models to investigate the transfer of wealth in a simple economic model consisting of N buyers and sellers, known as agents, who spend their time buying and selling goods at a yard sale. In this economic model, two agents A and B are chosen at random and goods are exchanged. If the price of the item is correct, neither agent gains or loses wealth but this is uninteresting and unrealistic. In a realistic transaction an agent can either pay too much or get a bargain so that one agent becomes slightly richer while the other agent becomes poorer. What happens to the wealth of agent A if this process is repeated many times and if we assume that the agent receiving the bargain is chosen at random so that sometimes agent A gains and sometimes agent A loses in the transaction. In other words, neither agent is always shrewd or always gullible so that all agents have an equal chance of getting rich. Does this model produce an equitable distribution of wealth?


This item is also available as an AAPT/ComPADRE book and in Apple iTunes.  The supplemental documents section has a download link for an ePub 3 book.

The EjsS Asset Exchange Model Package was developed using the Easy Java/JavaScript Simulations (EjsS) version 5 authoring tool.  Although EjsS is a Java program, it can create stand alone JavaScript programs that run in almost any PC or tablet.