Efficiency of Random strategies and Self-Organized Criticality in Socio-economic Systems
The lecture will consist of two parts. In the first one I will show how, inspired by physics examples, random strategies can be successfully applied to face problems of inefficient dynamics in social systems.
In the second part I will present some financial market models, characterized by self-organized criticality, that are able to generate endogenously a realistic price dynamics and to reproduce well-known stylized facts. In a community of heterogeneous traders, the spreading of information, based on a realistic imitative behavior, drives contagion and causes market fragility. It will be shown how the introduction of a small number of random traders is able to stabilize the market and produce beneficial effects both a micro and macro level.