Local Interactions and Global Persistence

This paper studies the effects of local interactions on the distribution of employment in a Keynesian-type model with strategic complementarities. It is shown that rational expectations generate symmetric equilibria for any interaction structure except autarky. Under adaptive expectations, the distribution of employment converges to a rational expectations equilibrium, implying that asymmetric equilibria, or inequality, cannot persist in the long run. On the basis of both analytical and computational results, however, it is shown that symmetric equilibria are unstable in the sense that, in the presence of noise, local interactions can produce globally persistent inequality.