INDIAN SCHOOL OF ECONOPHYSICS

Kishore C. Dash

Reader in Physics

Neelashaila Mahavidyalaya, Rourkela

1 Introduction

Kolkata can be considered as the epicentre of econophysics studies in India. Incidentally the

term ‘Econophysics’ was coined by H. Eugene Stanley in second statistical physics

conference at Calcutta University in 1995. The term ‘econophysics’ has been included [1] in

‘The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics’ (written by economist J. Barkley Rosser Jr).

The entry starts with “According to Bikas Chakrabarti (. . . ), the term econophysics was

neologized in 1995 at the second Statphys-Kolkata conference in Kolkata (formerly

Calcutta), India . . . ”. Another note [2] “The physics of our finances” published in New

Scientist in July 2012 highlighted the contributions from India (Fig. 1). Recently an entry on

econophysics has also been included in “Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Social

Sciences” published by SAGE Publications (2013) and the entry on it has been written by

Bikas K. Chakrabarti[3]

Figure 1: Recent reporting on econophysics research from India.

According to econophysics group of Houston University, Econophysics, also known as the

physics of finance, is the study of the dynamical behavior of financial and economic markets.

According to University of Maryland group of econophysicists, Econophysics is the

applications of statistical physics to economics and finance. Econophysics: Using Statistical

Physics Concepts to Better Understand Economic Questions, according to Boston University

econophycists[4]. In an interview with Kausik Gangopadhyay, Prof. Economics, IIM,

Kozhikode, Prof. Gene Stanley replies to his questions as follows[5]

2 A bit of History – I would like to present here a bit of

history in Indian perspective. The research on economics by

physicists is not new. Many physicists have contributed

significantly in the development of economics[6]. Arthashastra, whose meaning is ‘Science

of Economics’ is an extraordinary detailed manual on statecraft by one of classical India’s

greatest minds – Kautilya, Vishnugupta or Chanakya(350-283 B.C) and is read in Europe

even today. Chanakya is touted as the "Pioneer Economist of India" and was the adviser and

Prime Minister of Emperor Chandragupta. Chanakya was a professor at the University of

Takshila (located in present day Pakistan) and was an expert in commerce, warfare,

economics, etc. Artha, literally wealth, is one of the four supreme aims prescribed by Hindu

tradition. It is used in the sense of

a. Material well being

b. Livlihood

c.Economically productive activity particularly in agriculture, cattle rearing and trade

d. Wealth of Nations

Therefore, Arthashastra is ‘the science of economics’, including starting productive

enterprises, taxation, revenue collection, budget and accounts. Arthashastra contains 15 books

which cover numerous topics on economics, administration, government etc. It is written

An artists imagination of Chanakya

Chanakya Born c. 370 BC

Died c. 283 BC

Pataliputra

Other names Kauṭilya,

Vishnugupta

Alma mater Takshashila

Occupation Teacher and royal

advisor

Founder of the Maurya Empire

mainly in prose but also incorporates 380 shlokas. The

first five books deal with internal administration and

the last eight on a state’s relations with its neighbours.

‘Arthashastra’ – Science of Economics &

Government existed even before Kautilya.

Unfortunately, all the earlier works are lost and

Kautilya’s Arthashastra is the earliest text that has

come down to us.

2.1 Income distribution in societies

Meghnad Saha(1893–1956) was an Indian

astrophysicist noted for his development in 1920 of the

thermal ionization equation’. In his later years Saha

increasingly turned his attention to the social relation of

science and founded the outspoken journal Science and

Culture in 1935. He was the founder of the Saha

Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata. He along with his

collaborators had already discussed at length in their

text book in the 1950s, the possibility of using a

Maxwell–Boltzmann velocity distribution (a gamma

distribution) in an ideal gas to represent the income

distribution in societies: “suppose in a country, the

assessing department is required to find out the average

income per head of the population. They will proceed

somewhat in the similar way . . .(the income

distribution) curve will have this shape because the

number of absolute beggars is very small, and the

number of millionaires is also small, while the majority of the population have average

income.” (“Distribution of velocities” in A Treatise on Heat, M.N. Saha and B.N. Srivastava,

Indian Press, Allahabad, 1950;pp. 132–134).

Meghnad Saha

Meghnad Saha in Berlin

Born 6 October 1893

Shaoratoli, Dhaka, Bengal, British

India Died 16 February 1956 (aged 62)

Residence India

Nationality - Indian

Fields- Physics

Institutions - Allahabad University

University of Calcutta

Imperial College London

Alma mater- Dhaka College

Presidency College of the University of

Calcutta

Known for Thermal ionisation

Prize – Griffith Prize

2.2 Indian Statistical Institute

Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis

Indian Statistical Institute (I.S.I.) was first set up by Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis in the

Presidency College in Kolkata. It was registered as a non-profit making learned society for

the advancement of statistics in India in 1932. Within a few years the Institute's

achievements in research that included innovative projects on sample surveys of agricultural

crops and socio-economic after-effects of the Bengal famine (1943-44) as well as path

breaking research publications of Professor R.C. Bose on experimental designs in the Annals

of Eugenics (1939) brought recognition in India and abroad. The Institute is now considered

as one of the foremost centres in the world for training and research in statistics and the

related sciences. Under the leadership of Professor P. C. Mahalanobis, the Institute also

initiated and promoted the interaction of statistics with natural and social sciences to

unfold the role of statistics as a key technology which explicated the twin aspects of

statistics - its general applicability and its dependence on other disciplines for its own

development. ISI is probably the first such institute in the world, which brought a closeness

between natural and social science with the help of statistics. The major objectives of the

Institute, as given in its Memorandum, are

(a) to promote the study and dissemination of knowledge of statistics, to develop statistical

theory and methods, and their use in research and practical applications generally, with

special reference to problems of planning of national development and social welfare;

Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata

(b) to undertake research in various fields of natural and social sciences with a view to the

mutual development of statistics and these sciences;

(c) to provide for, and undertake, the collection of information, investigation, projects and

operational research for purposes of planning and the improvement of efficiency of

management and production.

3 Present Scenerio

The work on econophysics in India started around 1990 from Saha Institute Nuclear Physics,

Kolkata. Now-a-days many researchers from different universities and institutes from our

country are also involved in this research field and international conferences are being

organised here on regular basis. Over the last two decades many papers, books and reviews

have been written by the Indian scientists in this field[3].

3.1 Books: Following books have been published by Indian econophysicists.

• S. Sinha, A. Chatterjee, A. Chakraborti and B. K. Chakrabarti, Econophysics:An

Introduction, Wiley-VCH, Berlin, 2010.

• B. K. Chakrabarti, A. Chakraborti, S. R. Chakravarty and A. Chatterjee, Econophysics of

Income and Wealth Distributions, Cambridge University

Press, Cambridge, 2013.

• P. Sen, B. K. Chakrabarti, Sociophysics: An introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford,

2013.

3.2 Papers: Many papers have been published by Indian econophysicists in many journals

and books since 2005. About 60 papers have been published by International journals like

EPJ B, Physica A, Phys scripta T, PRE, Int. Journal of Mod. Phy. C, Current Science, Chaos,

Solitons and Fractals, Economics E. Journal, New J. Phys., J. Of Phys., Fractals, Economic

and political weekly etc. Similarly papers have also been published in Indian Journals like

Pramana, Physics News, Science and Culture(Special Issue on Econophysics) . Many ppapers

have also been published in edited books, conference proceedings of coferences and

workshops organised in India and abroad. Indian econophysicists, whose papers have been

published include B. K. Chakrabarti, S. Marjit, S. Pradhan, A. Das, S. Yerlagadda, A.

Chakrabarti, P. K. Mohanty, S. S. Manna, I. Bose, S. Banerjee, A. Mehta, A. S. Majumdar,

D. Bagchi, P. Barat, D. P. Pal, H. P. Pal, A. Chatterjee, P. Bhattacharya, U. Basu, K.

Guhathakurta, M. Indranil, U. K. Basu, A. C. Ray, A. S. Chakrabarti, M. Mitra, K.

Gangopadhyay, B. Basu, S. Biswas, P. Sen, A. Sarkar, S. R. Chakraborty, V. K.

Ramchandran, M. Swaminathan, A. Bakshi, S. Bandapadhyay, B. Bhattacharya, A. Roy

Choudhury, N. Srivastav, Asim Ghose, S. Goswami, A K. Chandra, G. Mukherjee, P.

Majumdar, J. Basu, B. Sarkar, A. Bhattacharya, M. Chakrabarty, M. Gupta, B. Chakraborty ,

A. Sen, P. Banerjee, C. Mukharji, K. Choudhury from Kolkata, S. Sinha, S. Raghavendra, R.

K. Pan, S. V. Vikram, V. S. Vijayraghaban, S. Ghosh, S. Subramaniam from Chennai,

M.S.Santhanam, P.K.Panigrahi, J. C. Parikh, J Bandopadhyay, D. Angom, D.P. Ahalpara. K.

B. K. Mayya from Ahmedabad, S. Jain, S. Krishna, V. Kulkarni, N. Deo, S. Kumar, D.

Mishra, S. Datta, A. Mukherji, A. Kar, K. Ghosh Dastidar from Delhi, D. Dhar, V. Sasidevan,

A. K. Ray, V. A. Singh from Mumbai, P. Manimara from Hyderabad, A. Kargupta, D.

Chakrabarty from Pansukura, M.A.Saif, P. M. Gade, M. Dash from Pune, C.M.Kistawal, M.

B. Porecha. P. Pathak, P. Pande from Kanpur, K. Gangopadhyaya from Kozhikode, U. Kovur

from Pilani, K. C. Dash from Rourkela. Year No. of published papers

1995 1

2000 1 2001 1 2003 3

2004 3 2005 16 2006 25 2007 16 2008 5 2009 8 2010 32 2011 13 2012 18 2013 6

Fig. 2 – Year wise Paper publications in International, National journals and books

Total no of papers – 148

Edited Books – 01

Books – 3

Conference Proceedings – 07 (International)

Conference Proceedings(Souvenir) – 02(National)

3.3 Edited books and conference proceedings volumes from India:

Edited Book [7]:

• Eds. B. K. Chakrabarti, A. Chakraborti and A. Chatterjee, Econophysics and Sociophysics:

Trends and Perspectives, Wiley-VCH, Berlin, 2006.

List of proceedings volumes [8]:

• Eds. A. Chatterjee, S. Yarlagadda, B. K. Chakrabarti, Econophysics of Wealth

Distributions, New Economic Windows, Springer-Verlag, Milan, 2005 [proceedings of

ECONOPHYS-KOLKATA I: Econophysics of Wealth Distributions, 15-19 March 2005;

Organized by Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics].

• Eds. A. Chatterjee, B. K. Chakrabarti, Econophysics of Stock and other Markets, New

EconomicWindows, Springer-Verlag, Milan, 2006 [proceedings of ECONOPHYS-

KOLKATA II: Econophysics of Stock Markets and Minority Games, 14-17 February 2006;

Organized by Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics].

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

1995

2000

2001

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

• Eds. A. Chatterjee, B. K. Chakrabarti, Econophysics of Markets and Business Networks,

New Economic Windows, Springer-Verlag, Milan, 2007

[proceedings of ECONOPHYS-KOLKATA III: Econophysics & Sociophysics of Markets

and Networks, 12-15 March 2007; Organized by Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics].

• Eds. B. Basu, B. K. Chakrabarti, S. R. Chakravarty, K. Gangopadhyay, Econophysics &

Economics of Games, Social Choices and Quantitative Techniques, New Economic

Windows, Springer-Verlag, Milan, 2010 [proceedings of ECONOPHYS-KOLKATA IV :

Econophysics of Games and Social Choices, 9-13 March 2009; Jointly organized by Saha

Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata & Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata].

• Eds. F. Abergel, B. K. Chakrabarti, A. Chakraborti, Manipushpak Mitra, Econophysics of

Order-driven Markets, New EconomicWindows, Springer-Verlag, Milan, 2011 [proceedings

of ECONOPHYS-KOLKATA V : Econophysics of Order-Driven Markets, 9-13 March 2010;

Jointly organized by Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Indian Statistical Institute and Ecole

Centrale Paris ].

• Eds. F. Abergel, B. K. Chakrabarti, A. Chakraborti, A. Ghosh, Econophysics of Systemic

Risk and Network Dynamics, New Economic Windows, Springer-Verlag,Milan, 2012

[proceedings of ECONOPHYS-KOLKATA VI : Econophysics of Systemic Risk and

Network Dynamics, 21-25 October 2011; Jointly organized by Saha Institute of Nuclear

Physics and Ecole Centrale Paris].

• Eds. F. Abergel, H. Aoyama, B.K. Chakrabarti, A. Chakraborti and A. Ghosh,Econophysics

of Agent-based models, to be published by Springer Verlag (Italia), Milan, 2013 [proceedings

of ECONOPHYS-KOLKATA VII: Econophysics of Agent-based models, 8-12 November

2012; Jointly organized by Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Ecole Centrale Paris and Kyoto

University].

3.4 Institutions involved in Econophysics Research:

Major developments on such interdisciplinary research (on econophysics or sociophysics)

have come from Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, Saha Institution Nuclear Physics,

Kolkata. A large number of papers on econophysics have been published from SINP and

significant research activities are also being continued. A major international conference

series on econophysics, namely ‘Econophys-Kolkata’ is being organized regularly here

(seven events since 2005). Other places where econophysics research is being actively

pursued are: universities like Calcutta University, Delhi University, Pune University, etc. and

institutions like Institute of Mathematical Sciences (Chennai), S N Bose National Centre for

Basic Science (Kolkata), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (Mumbai), Indian Institute

of Management (Kozhikode), PRL, Ahmedabad, IISER, Kolkata, IISER, Pune etc. National

level conferences on econophysics are now being held in several places; in particular,

Institute of Mathematical Sciences holds them quite regularly since 2004: First one was

“Workshop on The Economy as a Complex System”, Dec 6-7, 2004, the second one was

discussion meeting on “The Economy as a Complex System II: Economic Dynamics”, Dec

27-29, 2010 and the third one was “Brainstorming Meeting on Econophysics: Science for the

Economy”, July 30, 2013. Other (University Grant Commission sponsored) national level

conferences on econophysics include “Physics of Financial Markets - Challenges and

Opportunities”, Sept. 17-18, 2011, at Neelashaila Mahavidyalaya, Rourkela (Sambalpur

University, Odisha) and “Econophysics”, Aug. 18-19, 2012, at Hindol College, Khajuriakata

(Utkal University, Odisha).

3.5 City wise publications on econophysics

Table - 1

Here is a graphical presentation of the Indian cities where the major econophysics researches

have been carried out so far[3].

The dots represent the locations where major researches on econophysics have so far been

carried out (see Table 1).

From the above figure we find that econophysics research has been spreaded to East, West,

North and South of India.

4. A brief Introduction of Indian Econophysicists

Bikas K Chakrabarti [1952- :Prof. Chakrabarti is basically is a physicist, now he is

interested in economics and is considered as a pioneer in ‘Econophysics’. Now he is also a

visiting professor of Economics in Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. He has published

more than 170 papers in Physics, Economics and interdisciplinary journals. To his credit

there are 4 reviews in esteemed Reviews of Modern Physics. His papers have received more

than 2000 citations and his Hirsch index is 26 as reported by Web Science & 32 according to

Google Scholar. Some of the citations of Prof. Chakrabarti are

1.Editorial of Topical Issue on Physics in Society, European Physical Journal B, Vol 57

(2007) pp 121–125, incorporating 2 of Chakrabarti's, in an Editorial Choice-list of 21

"exemplifying pioneering" publications (earliest in 1872) in "Economy & Political

Economy";

2.Discussions on "pioneering" papers from "Chakrabarti's research group" (p 187; pp 185–

206) in Applied Partial Differential Equations (by Peter A. Markowich) Springer-verlag,

Berlin (2007);

3. Entry by economist J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. on Econophysics in The New Palgrave

Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Ed., Vol 2, Macmillan Publishers, NY (2008), pp 729–732,

beginning with "According to Bikas

Chakrabarti (...), the term 'econophysics' was

neologized in 1995 at the second Statphys-

Kolkata conference in Kolkata (formerly

Calcutta), India, by the physicist H. Eugene

Stanley ..." ;

4.Discussions by Victor Yakovenko on

"influential" (p. 2803) papers from "Kolkata

School" (p. 2808) in Encyclopedia of

Complexity and Systems Science, Vol. 3,

Springer-verlag, New York (2009) pp. 2800–

2826 (see also pp. 2792–2800);

5. Discussions by Victor Yakovenko and J.

Barkley Rosser, Jr. on "influential" (p. 1705) &

"elegant" (p. 1711) papers from "Kolkata

School" (p. 1711) in Reviews of Modern

Physics, Vol. 81 (2009) pp. 1703–1725;

6. Editorial of European Physical Journal:

Special Topics, Vol. 195 (2011), pp 1-2,

mentioning that the volume contains "... three

white papers of the EU project VISIONEER ...

followed by six commentaries from

distinguished researchers in the field of

complex system sciences ... Prof. Bikas

Chakrabarti, ...".[Home page of Prof.

Chakrabarti]

Earlier he was an editor of Pramana. Presently

he is in the editorial Board of: European

Physical Journal B, Indian Journal of Physics,

Journal of Economic Interaction & Coordination and Natural Science. In Econophysics he

has publishes the following books

1. Econophysics: An Introduction, S. Sinha, A. Chatterjee, A. Chakraborti and B. K.

Chakrabarti, Wiley-VCH, Berlin (2010) ["Verplicht" (Dutch; "Required/Mandatory"

English) in Econophysics 3rd year Graduate Course in Leiden University (2011)]

Bikas K Chakrabarti

Born 1952, Calcutta, India

Nationality Indian

Fields Physics, Economics

Institutions Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata

Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata

Alma mater University of Calcutta

Awards – Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar award

Known for –Income distribution, KPR problem

2. Econophysics of Income & Wealth Distributions, B. K. Chakrabarti, A. Chakraborti,

S. R. Chakravarty and A. Chatterjee Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.

3. P. Sen, B. K. Chakrabarti, Sociophysics: An introduction, Oxford University Press,

Oxford, 2013.

Besides, to his credit there are about 15 edited books and proceedings.

Prof. Chakrabarti is constantly working to establish econophysics like other subjects

in interdisciplinary physics and trying his best to bridge the gap between physics and

economics. He is organising International workshops at Saha Institute of Nuclear

Physics(SINP), Kolkata annually since 2005 under the banner of Econophysics,

Kolkata. Due to his influence National conferences are being organised in Institute of

mathematical Sciences(IMS), Chennai and different institutes in neighbouring Odisha

State. Many scientists from SNBCBS, Kolkata, Calcutta University, IISER, Kolkata,

ISI, Kolkata, TIFR, Mumbai, IMS, Chennai, PRL, Ahmedabad, IISER, Pune, IIM,

Kozhikode, Neelashaila Mahavidyalaya, Rourkela,

Hindol College, Dhenkanal and many other

Institutes are actively working in this field. Two of

his students, Anirban Chakrabarty and Arnab

Chatterjee have already been awarded Ph. D degree

in econophysics and some others are pursuing their

Ph.D & Post Doctoral programme. Anirban

Chakrabarty is the first Ph. D in econophysics from

India and has also got Young Scientist award.

Chakrabarti’s work on ‘Kolkata Paise

Resturant’(KPR) problem is first of its kind, which

has been named after a city and has put some impact

in the sphere of econophysicists.

Deepak Dhar[1951- :Prof. Dhar is a distinguished

Professor, Department of Theoretical Physics, Tata Institute

of Fundamental Research Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai,

India. He obtained Master of Science (Physics) from Indian

Inst. of Tech, Kanpur in1972, Ph. D. in Physics from

California Inst of Tech, Pasadena in 1978. He has received

Young Scientist Award in 1983, S. S. Bhatnagar award in

Physical Sciences 1991, J.R. Schrieffer Prize in Condensed

Matter Physics 1993 to name a few. He was an advisory

Editor, Physica A (till 2004) Member Editorial Board, J. of Stat. Phys. (1993-6,99-02, 05-)

Member, Editorial Board, J. Stat. Mech., Member, Editorial Board, Phys. Rev. E, 2008-

Member, Editorial Board, Pramana, 2008-Member, Editorial Board, J. Phys. A, 2010-

Member, IUPAP Commision on Statistical Physics (1992-95). He has organized `School on

Statistical Physics', at T.I.F.R., 2004. Under his supervision eleven students have completed

their Ph.D. Prof. Dhar is one among the scientists who have contributed to econophysics from

India.

Recent Publications:

1. Cooperation amongst competing agents in minority games (with V. Sasidevan and

Bikas K. Chakrabarti)

Deepak Dhar

Born – 30 Oct. 1951

Alma Mater –Allahabad University, IIT,

Kanpur, Californis Institute of Tech.,

Pasadena

Institutions – Tata Institute of

Fundamental Research, Mumbai

Honours and awards – Young Scientist

award(1983),Bhatnagar award(1991),

J.R.Schrie_er Prize, 1993 etc.

2. Effect of Noise on Patterns Formed by Growing Sandpiles (with Tridib Sadhu)

Sitabhra Sinha :Sitabhra Sinha is a Professor in the Physics

group of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc) at

Chennai (formerly known as Madras), and adjunct faculty of

the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS),

Bangalore.

His Ph.D. work was on the nonlinear dynamics of recurrent

neural network models done at the Machine Intelligence Unit,

Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta (1994-1998), postdoctoral

research is on nonlinear dynamics of spatially extended

systems with focus on biological systems at the Department

of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (1998-2000

and 2001-2002) and Weill Medical College of Cornell

University at New York City (2000-2001). He joined the

faculty of IMSc in September 2002.

His areas of research fall broadly under complex systems,

nonlinear dynamics and theoretical & computational

biophysics. Particular topics in which he is working currently

include:

Physics of cardiac arrhythmias - explaining the origin of and devising efficient control

methods for abnormal life-threatening disturbances in the rhythm of the heart (e.g.,

tachycardia and fibrillation) - spatio-temporal dynamics of spiral waves and spiral

turbulence in excitable media - dynamical pattern formation in biological cells and

tissue (e.g., periodic contractions in the uterus)

Network dynamics - role of mesoscopic organization, viz., modularity and hierarchy -

stability vs. complexity issues in structured networks with applications to biology and

ecology - eigenvalue statistics of non-hermitian random matrices - non-equilibrium

statistical mechanics of community assembly models

Systems biology - Intra-cellular signaling networks and their role in host-pathogen

interaction during infection - statistical analysis of epidemiological data - modelling

the spread of infectious diseases through contact networks in a population

Computational Neuroscience - modelling the entire nervous system of C. elegans to

understand the behavior of the organism as an emergent dynamical phenomenon -

meso-scale models of the dynamics in cortical areas of the brain - application of

neurodynamical chaos to information storage and processing - modelling low-level

visual processing in the retina

Physics of social and economic phenomena - genesis of scaling behavior (e.g., Pareto

law of wealth and income distribution, "inverse cubic law" of stock price fluctuations

in financial markets, etc.) in economics - emergence of popularity through self-

organization in a population of agents - phase transitions in collective (or social)

choice relevant to financial markets, movie revenue distribution and electoral

behavior

Emergence of computational complexity in cellular automata and related systems -

Phase transition in SAT-like problems

Sitabhra Sinha

Field – Physics

Alma Mater – Calcutta

University, ISI, Kolkata, IISc,

Bangalore, Cornell Univ.,

Newyork City

Institutes –IMSc, Chennai,

NIAS, Bangalore

Stochastic resonance, critical behavior and hysteresis in simple maps arising in

biological contexts

He was a participant during the Statistical Physics, Kolkata, conference in 1995, during

which the word ‘Econophysics’ was neolised by prof. Stanley. He is a regular attendee of

Econophysics Kolkata workshops, conducted at SINP, Kolkata. Moreover he organises

Econophysics Conferences at IMSc also.

Anirban Chakraborti: Chakraborti is an associate professor at école centrale Paris. He

obtained his M. Sc form Calcutta University and Ph. D from SINP, Kolkata. He is the first

Ph. D in econophysics from India. He has contributed to several interesting and important

areas, such as, Simulations of agent-based market models and their relation to different

theories in physics such as the kinetic theory of gases, percolation theory, and theory of self-

organization.

He has developed a variant of the famous Cont-Bouchaud model in Econophysics and

investigated under which circumstances the "stylized facts" of empirical return distributions

can be most successfully reproduced.

He along with co-authors has introduced a self-organizing model where agents trade with a

single commodity with the money they possess, and studied the role of money in the

economic market.

Quantitative Finance: Their group have made analysis of stock market data, both low

frequency (daily) and high frequency (intraday tick-by-tick), Study of the "stylized facts" of

the empirical data revealing the statistical properties of

financial time series

Economic taxonomy and Markowitz portfolio

optimization: They have studied the time dependence of

the recently introduced minimum spanning tree

description of correlations between stocks, called the

"asset tree'' and how it reflects the economic taxonomy.

Study of the dynamical evolution of the market

correlations: They performed correlation studies in the

price time-series of stocks, using (i) the minimum

spanning tree approach and (ii) the multidimensional

scaling tools

Study of Spectral and related properties: They calculated

the Hurst exponent and exponent from detrended

fluctuation analysis, of the financial time series data in

comparison to the random time series, and other important

spatio-temporal time series generated from GARCH

processes and couple-map lattices in chaotic regime.

Studies of extreme value statistics: The extreme event statistics plays a very important role in

the theory and practice of time series analysis. They applied this recently proposed method in

Anirban Chakraborti Alma Mater – Calcutta University, SINP, Kolkata Institutes – Ecole Centrale, Paris, BHU, India,Brookaoven National Lab, USA Research Interest- Econopysics, Quantitative finance, Statistical Physics Awards – INSA young scientist award, 2009

the empirical validation of an adapted financial market model of the intraday market

fluctuations.

Statistical Physics: His research on statistical physics focuses not only to its application to

problems in economic systems (Econophysics) but also to combinatorial optimization such as

the Travelling Salesman problem and study of “complex systems”.

Salesman Problem: He had studied several important aspects of the TSP and also some

specific questions which might help to understand the physics of TSP better.

Complex Systems: Study of systems with many interacting components, each component

being different, and their adaptation to continuously changing environment. He has been

involved in developing and understanding:

He is the reviewer of papers submitted to journals : Physical Review Letters, Physical

Review E, European Physical Journal B, Management Science, Physica A, Journal of

Economic Behavior & Organization, Communications in Mathematical Sciences, Journal of

Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment, Fractals, New Journal of Physics, PLoS One,

Economics e-journal.

Besides he has convened a number of conferences and workshops and is a member of many

scientific bodies.

He has also co-authored and co-edited at least six books so far

and has contributed his papers in five books. He has many

reviews and invited articles. He has a large number of

publications in referred journals.

Sanjay Jain: Areas of his work: Dr. Sanjay Jain is a professor

in Physics at Delhi University, India. He is a member of the

External Faculty, Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA

(2000-2006, 2007-2010). He was a visiting professor to Santa

Fe Institute, USA, during 1999 to 2000. He is basically a

theoretical physicist having interest in diversified fields. He

has also contribution to the field of ‘Econophysics’. His area of

works are as follows.

1. Structure and dynamics of complex networks, including

chemical, biological, and socio-economic networks

2. Mathematical modeling of complex adaptive systems,

evolutionary mechanisms

3. Models of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics

4. Nonlinear dynamics, random matrix models and quantum chaos

5. Quantum field theory, superstring theory and quantum gravity

Sanjay Jain

Field – Physics

Alma Mater –Delhi University, TIFR,

Mumbai

Institutes –Delhi University, IISc,

Bangalore, Santa Fe Instiute, USA,

Havard University

Subhrangsu Sekhar Manna: Prof. Manna did his M.Sc.(1978-1980) from Science

College, Calcutta University and Ph.D from Saha

Institute of Nuclear Physics in 1987. He had joined

IIT, Mumbai in 1992 and worked up to 1997, from

1998 he is a faculty at S. N. Bose National Centre for

Basic Sciences, Kolkata.

His Main areas of work are Critical Phenomena in

Complex Systems, Static and Dynamic Properties of

Complex Networks, Self-organized Non-equilibrium

critical Systems. He is the originator of the "Manna

Model" of stochastic Self-Organised Criticality &

also of the "Manna Universality Class" for dynamic

critical behavior and is known for the "Chatterjee-

Chakrabarti-Manna model of wealth distributions". He

has published a large number of papers basically on

complex networks.

Parongama Sen: Parongama Sen, a Kolkata based

statistical physicist did her M.Sc. from Calcutta University

in 1986 and Ph. D from Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics in

1993. After that she joined as a lecturer in College of

applied Sciences, University of Delhi, Research Associate

at Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi, SINP Kolkata,

PDF in University of Cologne, Lecturer in S.N. College,

Kolkata and now working in Calcutta University as an

Associate professor

Her research interests include Phase transitions and critical

phenomena in magnetic systems, networks, quantum

systems, percolation etc. Dynamical phenomena in complex

physical and social systems. She has a number of

publications in referred journals on econophysics, basically

on Ising Model, kinetic models of wealth exchange,

Complex Networks etc.

She has published two books. 1. ‘Quantum Ising Phases and

Transitions in Transverse Ising models, Lecture Notes in Physics M41, B. K. Chakrabarti, A.

Dutta and P. Sen, Springer- Verlag, 1996.

2. P. Sen, B. K. Chakrabarti, Sociophysics: An introduction, Oxford University Press,

Oxford, 2013.

Arnab Chatterjee: Arnab Chatterjee completed his M. Sc from University of Calcutta in the

year 2000 and awarded Ph. D from Jadavpur University on ‘Statistical Physics of Two Model

Dynamical Systems: Magnets and Trading Markets’ under supervision of Prof. Bikas K

Chakrabarti, SINP, Kolkata. He was a PDF at Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics

Section, The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy.

Centre de Physique Théorique, Université de la Méditerranée Aix Marseille II, Marseille,

Parongama Sen

Field – Statistical Physics

Alma mater – Calcutta

University, SINP, Kolkata

Institutes – Delhi University,

JNU, New Delhi, SINP,

University of Cologne,

S.N.College, Calcutta

UniversityResearch Interest -

Dynamical phenomena in

complex

physical and social systems.

S. S. Manna

Field – Physics

Alma mater – Calcutta University, Saha

Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata

Institutes – IIT, Mumbai, SNBNCBS,

Kolkata

France, Research Scientist at ISI Foundation, Turin, Italy, and Postdoctoral Researcher at

BECS, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland (since Feb 2012)

His main area of research is basically applications of Statistical Physics to Condensed Matter

and Social Sciences. He has worked on Dynamic transition in Ising Systems, Statistical

physics of socio-economic systems (Econophysics and

Sociophysics), kinetic exchange models with quenched

and annealed disorder etc.. He has a number of

publications in the field of ‘Econophysics’ in referred

journals. Besides along with Bikas Chakrabarti and others,

he has edited and written a number of books , reviews on

Econophysics. His books include

1. Bikas K. Chakrabarti, Anirban Chakraborti, Satya R.

Chakravarty, Arnab Chatterjee, Econophysics of

Income and Wealth Distributions, Cambridge

University Press, Cambridge (2012)

2. Sitabhra Sinha, Arnab Chatterjee, Anirban

Chakraborti, Bikas K. Chakrabarti, Econophysics: An

Introduction, Wiley-VCH, Berlin (2010); ISBN-13: 978-

3-527-40815-3. It is used as a text book in

1. Econophysics course in Institute of Physics, Leiden

University, Leiden, Netherlands.

2. Econophysics course in Department of Mathematics

and Statistics in University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.

3. Mathematical Models in Economics and Finance

(MMEF) course in Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne,

Paris, France.

The books edited by Arnab Chatterjee and others are

1. Arnab Chatterjee, Sudhakar Yarlagadda, Bikas K. Chakrabarti (Eds.), Econophysics of

Wealth Distributions, Springer-Verlag Italia, Milan (2005); ISBN: 978-88-470-0329-3.

2. Arnab Chatterjee, Bikas K. Chakrabarti (Eds.), Econophysics of Stock and other

Markets, Springer Verlag Italia, Milan (2006); ISBN: 978-88-470-0501-3.

3. Bikas K. Chakrabarti, Anirban Chakraborti, Arnab Chatterjee (Eds.), Econophysics and

Sociophysics, Wiley-VCH, Berlin (2006); ISBN-10: 3-527-40670-0.

Book review in Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Vol 10, Issue 4, October

2007.

4. Arnab Chatterjee, Bikas K. Chakrabarti (Eds.), Econophysics of Markets and Business

Networks, Springer Verlag Italia, Milan (2007); ISBN: 978-88-470-0664-5.

Arnab Chatterjee

Field – Physics, Econophysics

Alma mater – University of Calcutta,

SINP, Kolkata

Institutes –ICTP, Trieste, Université de

la Méditerranée Aix Marseille II,

Marseille, ISI Foundation, Turin,

Aalto Univ, Finland

Research Interest - Statistical physics

of socio-economic systems

(Econophysics and Sociophysics)

Manipuspak Mitra

Manipuspak Mitra is a professor of Economics at Indian Institute of Statistics, Kolkata.

Besides economics he works on econophysics and

published some papers in physics journals and book

chapters on econophysics. His paper ‘Statistics of the

Kolkata Paise Restaurant problem’ jointly with Asim

Ghosh, Arnab Chatterjee and Bikas K. Chakrabarti with

focus on Statistical Physics Modelling in Economics and

Finance, was published in New Journal of Physics

12(075033), (2010). ‘The Kolkata Paise Restaurant

problem and resource utilization’ jointly with Anindya

Sundar Chakrabarti, Bikas K. Chakrabarti and Arnab

Chatterjee was published in Physica A, 388(12), 2420-

2426 (2009). Similarly he has many publications as book

chapters on econophysics like ‘Cycle Monotonicity in

Scheduling Models’ in New Economic Window Series,

Springer Verlag Italia, Milan, 2010, ‘Dominant Strategy

Implementation in Multi-unit Allocation Problems’ in

New EconomicWindow Series, Springer Verlag Italia,

Milan, 2010 etc.

Satya R. Chakravarty... is a Professor of Economics at

the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. Professor

Chakravarty worked as a Visiting Professor at the

University of British Columbia, the University of

Karlsruhe, Germany, the Bar Ilan University, Israel, the

Kagawa University, Japan , the Paris School of

Economics, Paris, France, the Chinese University of

Hong Kong (1998), the Bocconi University, Milan, Italy the Yokohama National University,

Japan. He has over 80 publications in prestigious scholarly journals and edited volumes. He

has authored six books alongwith "Econophysics of Income and Wealth Distributions" (with

B. K. Chakrabarti, A. Chakraborti and A. Chatterjee), Cambridge University Press,

Cambridge, forthcoming. He also co-edited two books "Quantitative Economics: Theory and

Practice (with D. Coondoo and R. Mukherjee)", Allied Publishers, New Delhi, 1998 and

"Econophysics & Economics of Games, Social Choices and Quantitative Techniques" (with

Banasri Basu, Bikas K. Chakrabarti and Kausik Gangopadhyay), Springer-Verlag, Italia,

2009. He is a member of the editorial board of "The Journal of Economic Inequality" and a

member of the advisory board for the book series "Economic Studies in Inequality, Social

Exclusion and Well-Being", Springer-Verlag. Professor Chakravarty is a Co-Editor of the

Economics e-Journal, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. He has acted as a referee for

many journals.

He recieved the Mahalanobis Memorial Award of the Indian Econometric Society in

1994. This is the most coveted award for an economist in India. He has acted as an external

adviser to the World Bank, Washington, D.C., and as an adviser to the National Council of

Social Policy Evaluation, Mexico. He has also been a grantee of the Ford Foundation in

1980.

Satya R. Chakravarty, ISI, Kolkata

Field – Economics

Alma Mater –ISI, Kolkata

Institute – ISI, Kolkata

Research Interest - Welfare

Economics, Public Economics, Mathematical Finance, Industrial Organization and Game Theory

Awards - Mahalanobis Memorial

Award

Prasanta K. Panigrahi: Prasanta K. Panigrahi completed his M. Sc from Ravenshaw

College, Cuttack and Ph. D from University of Rochester, 1988.

He is now working as Professor of physics at Indian Institute

of Science Education and Research, Kolkata, since 2007. He is a

referee for Physical Review Letters, Physical Review B, Journal

of Physics, Pattern Recognition Letters, Physics Letter A,

Pramana, European Physics Letters. Besides Field Theory he

has also many publications in Econophysics basically on

wavelet transforms and analysis of stock markets. He has

published such papers in J. Quantitative Economics,

Resonance Phys. Rev. E, Pramana, Physica A,, J. Phys. A:

Math. Theor etc.

Nibedita Deo : Deo did her M.Sc from Delhi University and Ph.

D from Purdue University, USA. Besides statistical physics, her

research interest includes

Physics and Society:

Econophysics, Applications of

Statistical Physics to

Economics and Finance.She

has published many papers on

econophysics and is also

supervising Ph. D students. Sheis a regular attendee of

Econophysics –Kolkata series.

Kousik Guhathakurta: Kousik did his graduation in

production Engg., then did his MBA and Ph. D from

Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He is now working as an

Asst. Prof. At IIM, Kozhikode. His research interests are in

the field of Econophysics, Complexity and Empirical

Finance.He is a joint Managing Editor of IIMK Society &

Management Review. Before coming to teaching profession

he had Managerial position in various MNC/Indian

corporations for more than ten years. He has also presented

many papers in different international conferences like

Econophysics, Kolkata series and Greece. Some of his

recent publications and book reviews are as follows

Agent Based modelling of Housing Asset Bubble: A

Simple Utility Function Based Investigation”, (co-authored

by Kausik Gangopadhayay), Econophysics of Agent-Based

Models, F. Abergel et al. (eds.), Econophysics of Agent-

Based models, Springer International Publishing

Switzerland ,2013

"Examining Stock Markets: a non linear dynamics perspective: Examining the Geometric

Brownian Motion model with respect to Stock Price Movement in an Emerging Market”,(Co

authored by Bhattacharya, B., Roychowdhuri, A. (2012) Germany: LAP LAMBERT

Academic Publishing

Nibedita Deo

Field – Physics

Alma Mater – Ravenshaw College, Delhi University, Purdue UniversityInstitutes – Delhi University, Santa Fe,

I.I.Sc, Harvard University etc.

Honours and Awards- Akeley Memorial Award for Theoretical Physics – Best Graduate 1987, Purdue

University, USA, 1987, David Ross Fellowship, Purdue University, USA, 1984-1986,Radcliffe Fellow (Sept 1991-Aug 1992), Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute, Radcliffe College and Department of Physics,

Harvard University, USA.

Prasanta K. Panigrahi

Field – Physics Alma Mater – Ravenshaw College,

Utkal University, University of Rochester Institutes – University of Hyderabad, PRL, Ahmedabad, IISER, Kolkata Research Interest – Nonlinear dynamics,

wavelet transforms, field theory

Book Review:A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The

Incredible Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers,

Lawrence McDonald., & Patrick Robinson, In IIMB

Management Review 24(3), Sep 2012

Book Review: Econophysics and Companies, Hideaki Aoyama

Yoshi Fujiwara Yuichi Ikeda Hiroshi Iyetomi Wataru Souma,

Cambridge University Press In IIM Kozhikode Society &

Management Review 2(2) (Forthcoming)

Book Review: Econophysics and Companies, Hideaki Aoyama

Yoshi Fujiwara Yuichi Ikeda Hiroshi Iyetomi Wataru Souma,

Cambiridge University Press In IIM Kozhikode Society &

Management Review 2(2) (Forthcoming)

Agent Based modelling of Housing Asset Bubble: A Simple

Utility Function Based Investigation”, (co-authored by Kausik

Gangopadhayay), Econophysics of Agent-Based Models, F.

Abergel et al. (eds.), Econophysics of Agent-Based models,

Springer International Publishing Switzerland ,2013

Book Review: Econophysics and Companies, Hideaki Aoyama

Yoshi Fujiwara Yuichi Ikeda Hiroshi Iyetomi Wataru Souma,

Cambridge University Press In IIM Kozhikode Society &

Management Review 2(2) (Forthcoming)

Anita Mehta

Anita Mehta is a senior prof. of physics at SNBCBS, Kolkata. She did her M.A in Physics

and D. Phil from Oxford University. Her research interests are

on complexity in natural and intelligent systems. In the category

of natural systems, her focus remains granular physics, with an

emphasis on heterogeneities (static and dynamical), nucleation

phenomena in compaction and surface dynamics. Other areas in

which she has worked recently are game-theoretic models of

strategic learning, network dynamics and their role in risk

minimisation, optimal encodings on landscapes for NP-complete

problems, zero-temperature dynamics in constrained systems,

and the design and analysis of experiments on perception. She

has many publications and has been invited as speaker at many

conferences on ecoophysics. Some of her publications on

econophysics are as follows.

1. ’How the rich get richer’, Anita Mehta, A. S.

Majumdar, and J. M.Luck, pp. 199-204 in Econophysics of

Wealth Distributions, Springer-Verlag Italia, Ed. A. Chatterjee,

B. K. Chakrabarti and S. Yarlagadda(2005)

2. “Predatory trading and risk minimisation: how to

(b)eat the competition” Anita Mehta, in F. Abergel et al. (eds.),

Econophysics of Systemic Risk and Network Dynamics,New

Economic Windows, DOI 10.1007/978-88-470-2553-0_10,

Springer-Verlag Italia (2013).

Kausik Gangopadhyay is an Assistant Professor in the area of Economics at the Indian

Kousik Guhathakurta

Field - Finance,

Accounting and Control,

Alma Mater – Jadavpur University,IIM, Kozhikode Research Interest – Econophysics, Complexity,

Scientometrics

Anita Mehta

Alma Mater – Presidency College, Kolkata, Oxford University, Cornell University, SNBCBS, Kolkata

Research Interest -

complexity in natural and intelligent systems Awards – Rhodes Scholarship, Science Ambassador, Indo-US Science and Technology

Forum, Stree Shakti Samman award for

Indian Woman Scientist

Institute of Management, Kozhikode. He has earned his PhD from the University of

Rochester in 2007. Prior to that, he received the degrees of Bachelor of Statistics (Hons.) and

Master of Statistics from the Indian Statistical Institute. Primarily an Applied Economist, his

contribution in research lies in the areas like development economics and labour economics.

His research interest also extends to the spheres of interdisciplinary research, most notably

econophysics and urban management. His research articles have appeared in international

journals like Economics Letters, Physica A, Economics Quarterly, Urban Forestry and Urban

Greening. He has co-edited a volume published by Springer Verlag Italia entitled

"Econophysics and Economics of Games, Social Choices and Quantitative Techniques"

(2010). Apart from successfully teaching existing courses in reputed institutes like

University of Rochester, Indian Statistical Institute, Indian Institute of Management

Kozhikode, he has either offered new courses or experimented with the pedagogy of existing

courses. He is an associate editor of IIMK Society and Management, Sage Publication. His

publications include

1. Demand for Education:Is Culture a major Determinant? Kausik Gangopadhyay;Abhirup

Sarkar (2009)

2. Consumer Expenditure Distribution In India, 1983-2007:

Evidence Of Long Pareto Tail Abhik Ghosh;Kausik

Gangopadhyay;B.Basu (2010)

3. Income and Expenditure Distribution: A comparative

analysis Kausik Gangopadhyay;Banasri Basu (2010)

4. A Tale of Indian Cities: 1981-2010 Kausik Gangopadhyay;

Banasri Basu (2011)

5. Does stronger protection of intellectual property Stimulate

innovation? Kausik Gangopadhyay; Debasis Mondal (2012)

6. Extent of Poverty in India: A Different Dimension Kausik

Gangopadhyay; Kamal Singh (2012)

Besides, he has delivered talks in various econophysics

conferences.

5 Conclusion

Many researchers from India have been involved in econophysics research from the formal

beginning of the subject in 1995, and many Indian research institutes and universities are

involved in this research area. Some other important researchers are Raj Kumar Pan, Kausik

Gangopadhyaya, Y. Sudhakar, Anita Mehta, P. K. Mohanty, Amit Bhaduri, Abhirup Sarkar,

Indrani Bose etc. Apart from publications of important papers, several important conference

proceedings volumes and edited volumes, research monographs and text books on

econophysics have been published from India. Some of these papers have made good impact

and some of these books are being widely used in econophysics and sociophysics courses

started in many Universities. The first text book (in physics) on econophysics entitled

“Econophysics: An Introduction” has been written by Indian scientists. This book is already

being followed by many universities outside India like Leiden University, for their graduate

courses. There have also been some attempts to initiate such formal research groups or

centers in India. In particular, the “Policy Planing & Evaluation Committee” (PPEC) of the

Indian Statistical Institute, in its June 22 (2011) meeting considered a “Proposal for building

a Center for Econophysics & Quantitative Finance Research” and recommended that “PPEC

recognizes this to be an important proposal, but considering the availability of manpower and

the current focus of ERU (Economic Research Unit), it recommends that the proposal be

carried as a plan research project, but not as a full-fledged center at this point of time.

Kausik Gangopadhyay

Field- Economics

Alma Mater – ISI,

Kolkata, Rochester

University, USA, IIM,

Kozhikode

However, the recruitment of faculty members in the area of econophysics or related

disciplines may be made in ERU if needed.” The Human Resource Development Ministry

has proposed to constitute an award for social scientists on the lines of the Bhatnagar awards

for scientists. HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said this while speaking at a conference organised

by the Indian Council of Social Science & Research on 6th

Feb 2012. “For scientists we have

the Bhatnagar awards, but nothing for social scientists. We have proposed ten annual awards

to recognize advancement in the field of social science. I hope that due recognition to social

scientists and their contributions would spur thousands of aspiring scholars in the future.

These awards will be known as the Amartya Sen Awards.” Sibal said.

References:

[1] The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Ed., Eds. S. N. Durlauf and L. E.

Blume, Vol. 2, p 729, Macmillan, NY (2008).

[2] The physics of our finances, S. Battersby, New Scientist, 28, p. 41 (2012).

[3] Econophysics Research in India in last two decades http://arxiv.org/abs/arXiv:1308.2191

[4] http://www.eoht.info/page/American+school+of+econophysics

[5] www.saha.ac.in/cmp/camcs/01_KSM_507763_Rep1.pdf ·PDF file

Kausik Gangopadhyay Eugene H. Stanley IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review

2(2) ... SAGE Publications Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC

[6] Dash, Kishore C. (2014). “Evolution of Econophysics” (pg. 1) (abs), in: Econophysics of

Agent-Based Models (§14: Evolution of Econophysics, pgs. 235-86). Springer.

[7] Econophysics and Sociophysics: Trends and Perspectives, Eds. B. K. Chakrabarti, A.

Chakraborti and A. Chatterjee,Wiley-VCH, Berlin (2006).

[8] Econophysics of Wealth Distributions, Eds. A. Chatterjee, S. Yarlagadda, B. K.

Chakrabarti, Springer-Verlag, Milan (2005); Econophysics of Stock and other Markets, Eds.

A. Chatterjee, B. K. Chakrabarti, Springer-Verlag, Milan (2006); Econophysics of Markets

and Business Networks, Eds. A. Chatterjee, B. K. Chakrabarti, Springer-Verlag, Milan

(2007); Econophysics & Economics of Games, Social Choices and Quantitative Techniques,

Eds. B. Basu, B. K. Chakrabarti, S. R. Chakravarty, K. Gangopadhyay, Springer-Verlag,

Milan (2010); Econophysics of Order-driven Markets, Eds. F. Abergel, B. K. Chakrabarti, A.

Chakraborti, Manipushpak Mitra, Springer-Verlag, Milan (2011); Econophysics of Systemic

Risk and Network Dynamics, Eds. F. Abergel, B. K. Chakrabarti, A. Chakraborti, A. Ghosh,

Springer-Verlag, Milan (2012); Econophysics of Agent-based models, Eds. F. Abergel, H.

Aoyama, B.K. Chakrabarti, A. Chakraborti and A. Ghosh, to be published by Springer-

Verlag, Milan (2013).