Econophysics as a New School of Economic Thought: Twenty Years of Research

Abstract

In 2015, the science known as econophysics, which has been developing very quickly in latest years, celebrated its 20th anniversary. Perhaps a 20-year period is too short to evaluate the importance and achievements of econophysics, but the broad scope of research and significance of certain results encouraged me to undertake such an attempt. If societies appreciate efforts by econophysicists, perhaps we will be able to avoid next economic crises and related losses. Econophysics is a transdisciplinary science based on the observation that physical objects and economic objects can share a common theory. Since logical homologies are its foundation, it is an example of the well-known isomorphism principle formulated by Ludwig von Bertalanffy. The emergence of interdisciplinary fields of knowledge is consistent with the paradigm of general systems theory. The development of a given field of knowledge is most often measured by its ability to formulate new knowledge about reality. Progress in research can be spoken of both when the application of traditional methods leads to the discovery of new facts and when new scientific laws are discovered using new methods. Econophysics is an attempt to develop economics through the transfer of research methods and techniques from physics to economics. We are therefore dealing here with a second possibility. The methods of physics most often applied in economics include the theory of stochastic processes, cellular automata and nonlinear dynamics. This study presents the most important existing achievements of econophysics and the attempts to reconcile them with traditional economic knowledge. The accomplishment of a paradigmatic correspondence between econophysics and economics, both in the local and in the global sense, is a prerequisite for using the achievements of the former in economic policy.

The Role of Entropy in the Development of Economics

“…However, such a definition seems to be too one-sided because it assumes cognitive actions only by physicists. One must admit that studies of this type were initiated after 1995 only by physicists [ 75 ], but now an increasing number of economists can also apply modern methods and techniques originating in physics to describe markets and economies. It seems that the dynamic development of econophysics must be based on permanent cooperation between physicists and economists in solving economic problems, which may prove beneficial for the development of both economics and physics [ 76 , 77 , 78 ].…”

Econophysics as a Cause of a Scientific Revolution in Mainstream Economics

“…The origins of econophysics date back to 1995, though the concepts of physics have contributed to the development of economics since its very beginning [1]. It seems that the issue of assimilation of econophysics, which is still a new idea for economists, may be due to the normal management science placed in Kuhn's general structure of scientic revolutions [2].…”

“…Beside their goals, econophysics and the mainstream economics have little in common. However, the traditional economics has seen numerous non-linear models which can be studied in detail and developed using the non-linear dynamics methods.As mentioned earlier, those models could be taken over and developed in econophysics[1]. This process has already begun and one should expect the intensication of eorts in the future.…”