Thermodynamic description of world GDP distribution over countries
Abstract
We apply the concept of Rayleigh-Jeans thermalization of classical fields for a description of the world Gross Domestic Product (GDP) distribution over countries. The thermalization appears due to a variety of interactions between countries with conservation of two integrals being total GDP and probability (norm). In such a case there is an emergence of Rayleigh-Jeans condensation at states with low GDP. This phenomenon has been studied theoretically and experimentally in multimode optical fibers and we argue that it is at the origin of emergence of poverty and oligarchic phases for GDP of countries. A similar phenomenon has been discussed recently in the framework of the Wealth Thermalization Hypothesis to explain the high inequality of wealth distribution in human society and companies at Stock Exchange markets. We show that the Rayleigh-Jeans thermalization well describes the GDP distribution during the last 50 years.
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Frahm, K. M., Shepelyansky, D. L. (2025). Thermodynamic description of world GDP distribution over countries. arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.06420.
Klaus M. Frahm and Dima L. Shepelyansky. "Thermodynamic description of world GDP distribution over countries." arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.06420 (2025).