Economics requires understanding and analyzing forces that bring buyers and sellers to a market place who then negotiate exchanges of goods and services based on a mutually agreeable price. Economists have their own method of modeling whereby models are first conceived of some notion of economic and financial thinking, before being empirically tested, and anomalies are then recognized if the observed data is inconsistent with the hypothetical underpinning. This is in inherent contradiction with the modeling approaches of physicists who develop their theories, principle and laws after observing empirical data. The awareness that physics can enlighten the understanding of human behavior (and thus economics), and the interest of physicists in applying their training and models to understanding the complexities of finance and economics, led to the creation of a new field of study appropriately termed as Econophysics. Selected Topics on Econophysics is a collection of essays on topics that enhance and enrich our understanding of economic modeling when the same rigor of modelling used by physicists is brought to developing financial and economic theories. These articles include discussions on modeling bitcoins, stock index modeling using geometric Brownian motion, agent-based modeling, wealth distribution modeling, as well as modeling related to fractal regression, and chaotic processes. This interdisciplinary book will interest researchers, graduate students and professionals in the fields of economics, finance as well as physics.

There are at least three ways in which a public health program or policy may not reach stated goals for success: 1) Choosing an intervention approach whose effectiveness is not established in the scientific literature; 2) Selecting a potentially effective program or policy yet achieving only weak, incomplete implementation or "reach," thereby failing to attain objectives; 3) Conducting an inadequate or incorrect evaluation that results in a lack of generalizable knowledge on the effectiveness of a program or policy; and 4) Paying inadequate attention to adapting an intervention to the population and context of interest To enhance evidence-based practice, this book addresses all four possibilities and attempts to provide practical guidance on how to choose, carry out, and evaluate evidence-based programs and policies in public health settings. It also begins to address a fifth, overarching need for a highly trained public health workforce. This book deals not only with finding and using scientific evidence, but also with implementation and evaluation of interventions that generate new evidence on effectiveness. Because all these topics are broad and require multi-disciplinary skills and perspectives, each chapter covers the basic issues and provides multiple examples to illustrate important concepts. In addition, each chapter provides links to the diverse literature and selected websites for readers wanting more detailed information. An indispensable volume for professionals, students, and researchers in the public health sciences and preventative medicine, this new and updated edition of Evidence-Based Public Health aims to bridge research and evidence with policies and the practice of public health.

El autor utiliza la teoría de la "Gran Transformación" de la industrialización de Inglaterra desarrollado por Karl Polanyi para describir la situación actual en Europa. Hay una fuerte mercantilización de la economía y también de la vida social, pero lo que falta es la política social que debe acompañar este proceso. Desde esta perspectiva, la política social y de mercantilización son mutuamente dependientes. El énfasis en la integración más negativa que positiva (para usar los términos concebidos por Fritz Scharpf) en el desarrollo de Europa hace que esta interdependencia sea más difícil de lograr. El reparto de competencias entre el nivel europeo (políticas de mercado) y los Estados nacionales (políticas sociales) hace esta situación aún peor. El único camino a seguir es el fortalecimiento de la dimensión social europea.

This analysis of how multi-level networked governance has superseded the liberal system of interdependent states focuses on the role of law in mediating power and shows how lawyers have shaped the main features of capitalism, especially the transnational corporation. It covers the main institutions regulating the world economy, including the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO and a myriad of other bodies, and introduces the reader to key regulatory arenas: corporate governance, competition policy, investment protection, anti-corruption rules, corporate codes and corporate liability, international taxation, avoidance and evasion and the campaign to combat them, the offshore finance system, international financial regulation and its contribution to the financial crisis, trade rules and their interaction with standards especially for food safety and environmental protection, the regulation of key services (telecommunications and finance), intellectual property and the tensions between exclusive private rights and emergent forms of common and collective property in knowledge.