Mathematical Analogies: An Engine for Understanding the Transfers between Economics and Physics

Abstract The influence of physics on economics has been largely analysed; the opposite influence also exists even if it has been less studied. In the last decades the relation between these two disciplines has increased. Economic models are more often used in physics (minority game, GARCH model, etc.). The aim of this paper is to explore the role of mathematical analogies in the evolution of the relation between physics and economics. We show how these analogies have contributed to make the disciplinary boundaries of economics and physics more permeable. We investigate three examples: Frisch’s PPIP model (1933); the use of the Ising model for creating econophysics in the 1990s; and the minority game, created by econophysicists in 1997 for solving an economic problem and nowadays used in physics.