To help model complex and frequently erratic financial systems, some economists are turning to biology.

"To better understand complex financial markets, a growing number of economists are looking beyond math and physics, the roots of the field’s historic models, to what might seem an unrelated discipline: evolutionary biology. Much like a biological organism living in an ecosystem, the stock market is a network. As cells do within a human body, or as bacteria do in their colony, investors and companies interact with, influence, and compete with each other—and they need to adapt for survival.

Proponents of this so-called adaptive-markets approach, sometimes known as “evolutionary economics,” believe it has big implications...

To help model complex and frequently erratic financial systems, some economists are turning to biology.

"To better understand complex financial markets, a growing number of economists are looking beyond math and physics, the roots of the field’s historic models, to what might seem an unrelated discipline: evolutionary biology. Much like a biological organism living in an ecosystem, the stock market is a network. As cells do within a human body, or as bacteria do in their colony, investors and companies interact with, influence, and compete with each other—and they need to adapt for survival.

Proponents of this so-called adaptive-markets approach, sometimes known as “evolutionary economics,” believe it has big implications...