Econophysics and Companies
Econophysics and Companies
Yoshi Fujiwara, Kyoto University, Japan
Yuichi Ikeda, University of Tokyo
Hiroshi Iyetomi, Niigata University, Japan
Wataru Souma, Nihon University, Japan
Hiroshi Yoshikawa, University of Tokyo
Econophysics is an emerging interdisciplinary field that takes advantage of the concepts and methods of statistical physics to analyse economic phenomena. This book expands the explanatory scope of econophysics to the real economy by using methods from statistical physics to analyse the success and failure of companies. Using large data sets of companies and income-earners in Japan and Europe, a distinguished team of researchers show how these methods allow us to analyse companies, from huge corporations to small firms, as heterogeneous agents interacting at multiple layers of complex networks. They then show how successful this approach is in explaining a wide range of recent findings relating to the dynamics of companies. With mathematics kept to a minimum, the book is not only a lively introduction to the field of econophysics but also provides fresh insights into company behaviour.
- Important addition to the controversial emerging field of econophysics
- Shows how developments in econophysics can be used to study the 'real' economy, in contrast to the earlier econophysics books which are focused much more on the financial sector
- Accessible style, avoiding very technical mathematical explanations and making a lot of use of visual illustrations
Reviews & endorsements
"The failures of mainstream economic doctrine in interpreting the 'how and why' of the current financial and economic turmoil is an unrepeatable opportunity to change the situation. The probability of success largely depends on the capacity to pose the right research questions and develop the appropriate box of tools. That is what this path-breaking book impressively achieves. After having read it, the reader's approach to economics will surely change." - Mauro Gallegati, Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona, and Institute of Complex Systems, CNR, Rome
Product details
September 2011Paperback
9781107403482
262 pages
244 × 170 × 14 mm
0.42kg
Available
Table of Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- About the authors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Prologue
- 1. New insights
- 2. Size distribution
- 3. Fluctuations - company growth
- 4. Complex business networks
- 5. Agent-based model for companies
- 6. Perspectives for practical applications
- 7. Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index.
