Experimental econophysics: Complexity, self-organization, and emergent properties

Authored by J P Huang

Date Published: 2015

DOI: 10.1016/j.physrep.2014.11.005

Sponsors: Chinese National Natural Science Foundation Fok Ying Tong Education Foundation Chinese Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University Shanghai Key Laboratory of Financial Information Technology

Platforms: Python PHP Linux Apache MySQL

Model Documentation: Other Narrative Flow charts Mathematical description

Model Code URLs: http://t.cn/zOlkLEk

Abstract

Experimental econophysics is concerned with statistical physics of humans in the laboratory, and it is based on controlled human experiments developed by physicists to study some problems related to economics or finance. It relies on controlled human experiments in the laboratory together with agent-based modeling (for computer simulations and/or analytical theory), with an attempt to reveal the general cause-effect relationship between specific conditions and emergent properties of real economic/financial markets (a kind of complex adaptive systems). Here I review the latest progress in the field, namely, stylized facts, herd behavior, contrarian behavior, spontaneous cooperation, partial information, and risk management. Also, I highlight the connections between such progress and other topics of traditional statistical physics. The main theme of the review is to show diverse emergent properties of the laboratory markets, originating from self-organization due to the nonlinear interactions among heterogeneous humans or agents (complexity). (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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