This chapter reviews recent research adopting methods from statistical physics in theoretical or empirical work in economics and nance. The bulk of what has recently become known as 'econophysics' in broader circles draws its motivation from observed scaling laws in nancial markets and the...

This study aims at the analysis of the possible self-referential effects of economic theories and models on its own subject and of the mechanisms through which bounded rational actors perceive the self-referential nature of economic theories and might absorb their prescriptions. Thus, the focus...

Ofte fremhæves det, at økonomi som fagdisciplin har vundet videnskabelig sta-tus og progressivitet gennem specialisering (fra generalist til partiel ekspert) og anvendelse af en naturvidenskabelig inspireret metodologisk approach. Med en sådan udviklingstendens har økonomer da også i dag...

The intellectual histories of economics and evolutionary biology are closely intertwined because both subjects deal with living, complex, evolving systems. Because the subject matter is similar, contemporary evolutionary thought has much to offer to economics. In recent decades theoretical...

The emergence of novelty is a driving agent for economic change. New technologies, new products and services, new institutional arrangements, to mention a few examples, are the backbone of development and growth. Important though it is, the emergence of novelty is not well understood. What seems...

The goal of scientific work is to understand more and more by less and less. In this effort, theoretical unification plays a large part. There are two main types of theoretical unification - unification of different theories of the same field of phenomena and unification of theories of different...

This paper introduces a new theoretic entity, a nominalist heuristic, defined as a focus on prominent numbers, indices or ratios. Abstractions used in the evaluation stage of decision making typically involve nominalist heuristics that are incompatible with expected utility theory which excludes...