Authors' Words

Macro-Econophysics: New Studies on Economic Networks and Synchronization

Macro-Econophysics: New Studies on Economic Networks and Synchronization

Macro-Econophysics: New Studies on Economic Networks and Synchronization

    Written by AOYAMA Hideaki, FUJIWARA Yoshi, IKEDA Yuichi, IYETOMI Hiroshi, SOUMA Wataru, YOSHIKAWA Hiroshi

Author's Introduction

This book is a product of the work of six authors, including a macroeconomist and econophysicists with wide backgrounds ranging from cosmology to elementary physics. The authors have been working together for over 10 years, trying to make science out of economics.

What is needed? Real economics data, which are sometimes huge, analytical tools, as well as modelling based on statistical mathematics and theoretical physics, the most recent network science methods, (big) computational resources, and a lot of enthusiasm.

Armed with all of them, the authors tackled various topics, including income and firm-size distributions, productivity distributions, business cycles, systemic risk, bank-firm credit relationships, micro prices, etc.

This research was made possible by the use of Japanese proprietary huge data sets, including trade/production network data covering some one million firms, which are unique to Japan.

European/U.S. data were also used to examine the global economy, including foreign exchange and stock markets. Furthermore, the authors also developed new mathematical tools, that enabled investigation into time-delayed correlations and construction of a synchronization network. All of these results and tools are described in detail in this book.

In spite of the fact that a wide variety of topics and methods are covered, this book is not just a compilation of various items, but is a single unified product of the authors, who have been working together as a close unit over the years.

Any researcher who is already in this field or is interested in entering this area, as well as students who wish to start studying these subjects, will surely benefit from reading this book.