Peter Richmond - Böcker

An understanding of the behaviour of financial assets and the evolution of economies has never been as important as today. This book looks at these complex systems from the perspective of the physicist. So called 'econophysics' and its application to finance has made great strides in recent years. Less emphasis has been placed on the broader subject of macroeconomics and many economics students are still taught traditional neo-classical economics. The reader is given a general primer in statistical physics, probability theory, and use of correlation functions. Much of the mathematics that is developed is frequently no longer included in undergraduate physics courses. The statistical physics of Boltzmann and Gibbs is one of the oldest disciplines within physics and it can be argued that it was first applied to ensembles of molecules as opposed to being applied to social agents only by way of historical accident. The authors argue by analogy that the theory can be applied directly to economic systems comprising assemblies of interacting agents. The necessary tools and mathematics are developed in a clear and concise manner. The body of work, now termed econophysics, is then developed. The authors show where traditional methods break down and show how the probability distributions and correlation functions can be properly understood using high frequency data. Recent work by the physics community on risk and market crashes are discussed together with new work on betting markets as well as studies of speculative peaks that occur in housing markets. The second half of the book continues the empirical approach showing how by analogy with thermodynamics, a self-consistent attack can be made on macroeconomics. This leads naturally to economic production functions being equated to entropy functions - a new concept for economists. Issues relating to non-equilibrium naturally arise during the development and application of this approach to economics. These are discussed in the context of superstatistics and adiabatic processes. As a result it does seem ultimately possible to reconcile the approach with non-equilibrium systems, and the ideas are applied to study income and wealth distributions, which with their power law distribution functions have puzzled many researchers ever since Pareto discovered them over 100 years ago. This book takes a pedagogical approach to these topics and is aimed at final year undergraduate and beginning gradaute or post-graduate students in physics, economics, and business. However, the experienced researcher and quant should also find much of interest.

The World in One School explores in text and image the global influence of Britain’s oldest University School of Architecture, exploring the history of the School and what its teachers and graduates have achieved internationally in designing and constructing the architecture of the world. Under the leadership of Sir Charles Reilly, architects such as Herbert Rowse and Harold Dod worked in the American Beaux Arts style and this became the house style of the School that is reflected in numerous Liverpool landmarks. Exported worldwide, what became known as the ‘Liverpool Manner’ brought a distinctive style to major buildings across the globe. Students at the School came from all corners of the world and, equally, were sent on international practice placements. In the years between the two world wars, American architectural practices were prominent in this movement – for example, McKim, Mead and White; Corbett, Harrison and McMurray; and Carrer and Hastings. Later, under Lionel Budden, the School moved into the forefront of the Modernist movement, with architects such as Edwin Maxwell Fry and George Checkley drawing inspiration from the works of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. Other graduates of the School, such as William (Lord) Holford and Gordon Stephenson made major worldwide contributions to the field of city and regional planning. The World in One School is a remarkable story of a School with a long history of honours and awards, including six Royal Gold Medals for Architecture to its graduates and staff: Sir Charles Reilly, Sir Patrick Abercrombie, Lord Holford, Edwin Maxwell Fry, Sir James Stirling and Colin Rowe.

Herbert James Rowse (1887–1963) was an extraordinary architect who shaped the city of Liverpool with his array of exquisite buildings, plans, and infrastructure. Practicing in an eclectic manner that was influenced by American Beaux Arts and later using simpler geometries of monumental bare brick, his large body of work reveals a modernity that was concerned with luxurious materials, restrained but contemporary decoration and sculpture, and bold forms often with a sense of theatre and performance. His work has endured passing trends and fashions, retaining a seductive appeal and resonance with visitors and occupants alike, despite its often monumental massing and extraordinary scale. This book aims to discern not only the architectural merits and advances of his work, but also their wider significance. Through Rowse’s work we gain a glimpse into some of the broader agendas of the time and place, not least through the corporate and banking commissions that accompanied the large docks and shipping firms in Liverpool, where Rowse produced some of his most distinctive work. In addition to these commercial ventures Rowse contributed to the post-war housing debates through his proposals that looked to rows of cottages set around village greens, rather than high-rise living. Published in association with The Twentieth Century Society.