Learning increases growth and reduces inequality in shared noisy environments

Abstract

Abstract Stochastic multiplicative dynamics characterize many complex natural phenomena such as selection and mutation in evolving populations, and the generation and distribution of wealth within social systems. Population heterogeneity in stochastic growth rates has been shown to be the critical driver of wealth inequality over long time scales. However, we still lack a general statistical theory that systematically explains the origins of these heterogeneities resulting from the dynamical adaptation of agents to their environment. In this paper, we derive population growth parameters resulting from the general interaction between agents and their environment, conditional on subjective signals each agent perceives. We show that average wealth-growth rates converge, under specific conditions, to their maximal value as the mutual information between the agent’s signal and the environment, and that sequential Bayesian inference is the optimal strategy for reaching this maximum. It follows that when all agents access the same statistical environment, the learning process attenuates growth rate disparities, reducing the long-term effects of heterogeneity on inequality. Our approach shows how the formal properties of information underlie general growth dynamics across social and biological phenomena, including cooperation and the effects of education and learning on life history choices.