Econophysics is a field that attempts to understand economics through theories and methodologies developed by physicists, because both areas involve the study of complex systems formed by a large number of smaller subsystems. The term itself was coined by an American physicist named Harry Eugene Stanley, who saw merit in the idea of applying approaches used in statistical physics to figure out problems in economic systems. These are mostly systems that involve nonlinear dynamics or a great deal of uncertainty.
The term "econophysics" can also be understood to mean the physics of finance, because it attempts to understand the global behavior of financial markets from a scientific standpoint. It has its roots in ancient history; Copernicus and Isaac Newton were two luminaries who applied statistical physical concepts to economic problems. Physics involves trying to understand how macroscopic effects are bought about by a huge number of microscopic interactions, so some of the tools used by statistical physicists can be used to more accurately understand market dynamics.
For instance, studies of entropy have been applied to gain a better understanding of salary distribution in a free market. Many similarities have been found between data on stock markets and earthquakes. This could help economists better understand and perhaps even predict stock market crashes.
The availability of a large amount of market data has made this possible because, for example, every stock market transaction is meticulously recorded and stored. Price changes and fluctuations can be better understood using precise empirical tools utilized by physicists instead of applying classical economic theories that might be biased. Econophysics is also known as statistical finance because it studies market dynamics so closely.
Econophysics involves the collaboration of physicists, mathematicians and economists who hope to discover new insights into the behavior of financial markets through a statistical approach. Questions about the properties of markets, their size and stability, their behavior and their impact could be more clearly understood through using this approach. Though the behavior of molecules might be a lot simpler than the behavior of financial systems, the collective or emergent behavior of millions of molecules is not unlike the financial behavior of millions of people. Theories that apply to the former could also give insights into the latter.
The primary focus of this field has been to apply methodologies utilized by physicists to economics. These theories have also been applied in other fields such as medicine, biology and psychology. Econophysics has also been used to study industrial economics.