Minecraft Economics: A Study of Wealth Inequality in a Virtual World

Abstract

We examine the hypothesis that capitalist economies generate inequality by looking at the distribution of wealth in a virtual world. Employing the sandbox video game Minecraft as an example of a “pure” market economy, we chose several Minecraft economy servers and collected their respective wealth data. We found these unregulated economies to have greater wealth inequality than any single nation's economy. These results suggest that market economies generate significant “natural” inequality, and that government policies are effective in moderating the inequality-inducing impact of capitalism.

Keywords: Inequality, Wealth, Gini Coefficient, Virtual Economy, Minecraft

JEL Classification: D31