ABSTRACT
The last 30 years have seen an increase in alternative approaches to economic modeling inspired by analogies with statistical mechanics and other areas of physics. Work in this tradition has come to be known as econophysics. Despite the apparent empirical successes of some models in econophysics, the field has been widely criticized. In this chapter, we diagnose more precisely why it is that econophysics models seem unsatisfactory and suggest one way of reconceptualizing the problem, as well as offering possible solutions. Our focus will be on the role of analogies and robustness analysis in econophysics modeling.
