Econophysics and Sociophysics: Recent Progress and Future Directions

This book presents the proceedings from ECONOPHYS-2015,an international workshop held in New Delhi, India, on the interrelated fieldsof “econophysics” and “sociophysics”, which have emerged from the applicationof statistical physics to economics and sociology. Leading researchers fromvaried communities, including economists, sociologists, financial analysts,mathematicians, physicists, statisticians, and others, report on their recentwork, discuss topical issues, and review the relevant contemporary literature.

A society can be described as a group of peoplewho inhabit the same geographical or social territory and are mutually involvedthrough their shared participation in different aspects of life. It is possibleto observe and characterize average behaviors of members of a society, an examplebeing voting behavior. Moreover, the dynamic nature of interaction within anyeconomic sector comprising numerous cooperatively interacting agents has manyfeatures in common with the interacting systems of statistical physics. It ison these bases that interest has grown in the application within sociology andeconomics of the tools of statistical mechanics. This book will be of value forall with an interest in this flourishing field.