In this paper, making use of recent statistical physics techniques and models, we address the specific role of randomness in financial markets, both at the micro and the macro level. In particular, we review some recent results obtained about the effectiveness of random strategies of investment,...

Building on similarities between earthquakes and extreme financial events, we use a self-organized criticality-generating model to study herding and avalanche dynamics in financial markets. We consider a community of interacting investors, distributed on a small-world network, who bet on the...

In this paper we focus on the beneficial role of random strategies in social sciences by means of simple mathematical and computational models. We briefly review recent results obtained by two of us in previous contributions for the case of the Peter principle and the efficiency of a Parliament....

We give a closer look at the Central Limit Theorem (CLT) behavior in quasi-stationary states of the Hamiltonian Mean Field model, a paradigmatic one for long-range-interacting classical many-body systems. We present new calculations which show that, following their time evolution, we can observe...

We study the relationship between chaotic behavior and the Central Limit Theorem (CLT) in the Kuramoto model. We calculate sums of angles at equidistant times along deterministic trajectories of single oscillators and we show that, when chaos is sufficiently strong, the Pdfs of the sums tend to...

In this paper we discuss opinion dynamics in the opinion changing rate (OCR) model, recently proposed in Pluchino et al. [Int. J. Mod. Phys. C 16(4) (2005) 515–531]. The OCR model allows to study whether and how a group of social agents, with a different intrinsic tendency (rate) to change...

We present a Monte Carlo numerical investigation of the Hamiltonian mean field (HMF) model. We begin by discussing canonical Metropolis Monte Carlo calculations, in order to check the caloric curve of the HMF model and study finite size effects. In the second part of the paper, we present...

We discuss the non-Boltzmannian nature of quasi-stationary states in the Hamiltonian mean field (HMF) model, a paradigmatic model for long-range interacting classical many-body systems. We present a theorem excluding the Boltzmann–Gibbs exponential weight in Gibbs Γ-space of microscopic...

The Brain Drain phenomenon is particularly heterogeneous and is characterized by peculiar specifications. It influences the economic fundamentals of both the country of origin and the host one in terms of human capital accumulation. Here, the brain drain is considered from a microeconomic...