The main objective of this book is to show that behind the bewildering diversity of historical speculative episodes, it is possible to find hidden regularities. Speculative bubbles require the study of various episodes in order for a comparative perspective to be obtained and the analysis developed in this book follows a few simple but unconventional ideas. To that end, the author demonstrates how some of the basic concepts of dynamical system theory, such as the notions of impulse response, reaction times and frequency analysis, play an instrumental role in describing and predicting speculative behavior.
Contents
Preface; Part I. Econophysics: 1. Why econophysics?; 2. The beginnings of econophysics; Part II. How Do Markets Work?: 3. Social man versus homo economicus; 4. Organization of speculative markets; Part III. Regularities in Speculative Episodes: 5. Collective behavior of investors; 6. Speculative peaks: statistical regularities; Part IV. Theoretical Framework: 7. Two classes of speculative peaks; 8. Dynamics of speculative peaks; 9. Theoretical framework: implications; References; Index.
Reviews
"The author presents an excellent description.... It is a very pleasant read.... the book is worth reading to anyone interested in these matters." Journal of Statistical Physics
"Roehner...is to be congratulated on his pioneering contribution." EH.NET
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