经济研究中的物理学

Physics in the study on economics

当前的金融危机再次表明,传统经济学作为一门学科缺乏解释力和预测力.造成这个令人失望的状况的根本原因是由于经济学家没有按照科学的范式来发展这个学科.经济学的现状吸引了一群物理学家进入这个学科并形成了一个新的交叉学科——经济物理学,人们期望它在促进经济学科学化的进程中起决定性作用.文章首先简要介绍了经济学的主要内容,说明经济学理论是建立在理性和均衡假定基础之上的;接着论述了为什么经济学还不是一门科学,指出经济学研究不是基于逻辑实证主义原则来开展的;文章还分析了物理学家是如何研究经济问题的,介绍了经济物理学的主要研究内容和研究方法;文章最后提出经济学范式的转变必须从观察和实验出发,经济学理论必须建立在一个合理设计的量纲体系和对实际经济运行过程的正确理解基础之上.

The current financial crisis once more demonstrates that traditional economics lacks the power of explanation and prediction. The reason for this is that economists have not developed the subject within a scientific framework. The current stage of economics has tempted a group of physicists to enter this field and form a new interdisciplinary subject, econophysics, which is expected to play an essential role in the sci- entific transformation of economics. In this paper, we briefly review the subject content of economics, pointing out that its theory is based on assumptions of rationality and equilibrium. Then it is shown why e- conomics is not yet a science, since it has not been carried out according to logical positivism. We examine how physicists study economic problems by looking into the methods used and the topics discussed in the field of econophysics. Finally, we argue that transforming economic modelling should start from observa- tion and experiments, and a better theory should be built on the basis of a reasonably designed dimensional system and an accurate perception of real economic performance.