Applications of statistical physics to economics : distributions of wealth and correlations of financial data

Abstract

Over the last decade the study of economic and financial problems by the physics community has become very popular. Econophysics describes the application of tools from statistical physics to the study of problems in economics, such as correlations in stock prices or the distribution of wealth in society.In this thesis we have considered two separate topics. First, the distribution of wealth in societies where the emphasis is on examining the power laws that characterise the distribution of wealth and income. And second, the correlations in stock prices, which is linked to asset and portfolio risk management.