  A deterministic system of coupled maps is proposed as a model for economic
activity among interacting agents. The values of the maps represent the wealth
of the agents. The dynamics of the system is controlled by two parameters. One
parameter expresses the growth capacity of the agents and the other describes
the local environmental pressure. For some values of the parameters, the system
exhibits nontrivial collective behavior, characterized by macroscopic periodic
oscillations of the average wealth of the system, emerging out of local chaos.
The probability distribution of wealth in the asymptotic regime shows a power
law behavior for some ranges of parameters.
