What’s the use of “econo-physics”?

Why physics + economics = more than you think

About 20 years ago, a few physicists got interested in applying some ideas and concepts from physics to problems in finance and economics. The area is sometimes called…

Bio-finance? Why high-frequency trading makes stocks flock like birds

Plus a bonus: enjoy an “awesome”…

The fragile “wisdom” of crowds

Why prediction markets aren’t quite as amazing as economists once thought

A couple of years ago, prediction markets were all the rage. They seemed to provide a mechanism for pooling the wisdom of…

Economic orthodoxy is going down

… even if most economists don’t yet know it

Over the past few years of blogging, I’ve spent a fair bit of time — too much time — perusing the blogs and research papers of mainstream economists, especially in…

How Google's algorithm could fix the financial system

Computation could make banks’ systemic risks visible to all

About 15 years ago, Google's PageRank algorithm transformed the web by making it much easier to search. An…

“Just so” stories of modern economics

Economists like to tell stories with their theories. They look like the wrong stories…

Since the financial crisis of 2007-2008, there's been lots of criticism of how economists…

Why high alcohol consumption is optimal for humans

From Paul Pfleiderer, a brilliant demolition of the way economists create, use and defend their models

The physics of finance? 

What this is about

This collection explores modern research that is helping to transform economics and finance, especially through inspiration coming from physics and the other natural sciences. If traditional economics has emphasized…