1996–2016: Two decades of econophysics: Between methodological diversification and conceptual coherence

Abstract

Abstract. This article aimed at presenting the scattered econophysics literature as a unified and coherent field through a specific lens imported from philosophy science. More precisely, I used the methodology developed by Imre Lakatos to cover the methodological evolution of econophysics over these last two decades. In this perspective, three co-existing approaches have been identified: statistical econophysics, bottom-up agent based econophysics and top-down agent based econophysics. Although the last is presented here as the last step of the methodological evolution of econophysics, it is worth mentioning that this tradition is still very new. A quick look on the econophysics literature shows that the vast majority of works in this field deal with a strictly statistical approach or a classical bottom-up agent-based modelling. In this context of diversification, the objective (and contribution) of this article is to emphasize the conceptual coherence of econophysics as a unique field of research. With this purpose, I used a theoretical framework coming from philosophy of science to characterize how econophysics evolved by combining a methodological enrichment with the preservation of its core conceptual statements.

The Intersubjective Markets Hypothesis

“…From an epistemological perspective, studying the emergence of a spontaneous order in human systems has led physicists to focus on economics and social sciences since the 1990s, with the rise of a new academic field called 'econophysics' (Schinckus, 2016). Schinckus (2017) highlighted interesting similarities between the way of characterising the phenomenon of emergence by econophysicists and the Hayekian emergence, which could be seen as a paradox since Hayek (1942) was opposed to the idea of importing physical concepts into economics.…”

A Novel MAGDM Method Based on Hesitant Picture Fuzzy Schweizer–Sklar Maclaurin Symmetric Mean Operators and Their Application

“…Econophysics is a heterodox interdisciplinary research field, applying theories and methods originally developed by physicists in order to solve problems in economics, usually those including uncertainty or stochastic processes and nonlinear dynamics, which have received widespread attention from scholars [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. In recent years, with the increasing complexity of the social economy, some scholars tend to apply fuzzy set theories into complex economic problems, and multiple-attribute decision making (MAGDM) is one of the hottest application areas.…”

An Econophysics Study of the S&P Global Clean Energy Index

“…The huge amount of data drew the attention of a particular audience of researchers. Statistical physicists started to manage and study financial data, creating an interdisciplinary research area called Econophysics (see [4][5][6][7] for recent reviews). The use of detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) and detrended cross-correlation analysis (DCCA) come under this research area and will be used here.…”