Macro-Econophysics: New Studies on Economic Networks and Synchronization

The concepts of statistical physics and big data play an important role in the evidence-based analysis and interpretation of macroeconomic principles. The techniques of complex networks, big data, and statistical physics are useful to understand theories of economic systems, and the authors have applied these to understand the intricacies of complex macroeconomic problems. Recent research work using tools and techniques of big data, statistical physics, complex networks, and statistical science is covered, and basic graph algorithms and statistical measures of complex networks are described. The application of big data and statistical physics tools to assess price dynamics, inflation, systemic risks, and productivity is discussed. Chapter-end summary and numerical problems are provided to reinforce understanding of concepts.

Hideaki Aoyama obtained his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1982 and studied High Energy Physics at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow. He was a visiting scholar at Harvard University, Massachusetts, and a lecturer at Northeastern University, Boston. He is an Advising Council for Credit Risk Database (Tokyo) and a Faculty Member of the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry, Tokyo (RIETI).

Yoshi Fujiwara is Professor of the Graduate School of Simulation Studies, University of Hyogo. He received his Ph.D. from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1992 and studied general relativity and quantum cosmology at the Yukawa Institute as a postdoctoral fellow. He was a visiting researcher at the Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara. He was engaged in research in econophysics at the Department of Economics, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy.

Yuichi Ikeda received his Ph.D. from Kyushu University in 1989 and studied experimental high energy physics at the Institute of Nuclear Science at Tokyo University as a postdoctoral fellow. He collaborated on the AGS-E-802 project at Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York and was a visiting industrial fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. He worked as a senior researcher at the Hitachi Research Institute during 2005 to 2008 before moving to his current position.

Hiroshi Iyetomi obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in 1984 and continued to study strongly-coupled plasma physics as an assistant professor there. He worked at Hitachi Ltd. as a researcher before moving on to the current position. Also he studied condensed matter physics at Argonne National Laboratory as a research associate and was a visiting associate professor at Louisiana State University and a visiting fellow at Delft University of Technology. He was a specially appointed professor at the Department of Economics, University of Tokyo.

Wataru Souma obtained his Ph.D. from Kanazawa University, Japan in 1996 and studied High Energy Physics at Kyoto University, Japan. He is currently working as Associate Professor of Physics at the College of Science and Technology, Nihon University, Tokyo. He served as research fellow at Advanced Telecommunication Research Institute International, Japan and as visiting associate professor, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo.