We find that the empirical density of firm profit rates, measured as returns on assets, is markedly non-Gaussian and reasonably well described by an exponential power (or Subbotin) distribution. We start from a statistical equilibrium model that leads to a stationary Subbotin density in the...

We derive microscopic foundations for a well-known probabilistic herding model in the agent-based finance literature. While the model is quite robust with respect to behavioral heterogeneity, the network structure describing the very feasibility of agent interaction turns out to have a crucial...