Economic Phenomena from the Viewpoint of the Mechanics of Materials

AbstractThe article describes the increasing use of physical and mathematical models to describe and analyze economic processes based upon the analogies found between physical and economic processes during the formation of the Lausanne and Cambridge Schools of Economics. In brief, one of the necessary outcomes of the application of physical-mathematical methods in economics has been the gradual creation of conditions in basic and applied economic research during the course of the twentieth century, which at the turn of the millennium gave rise to econophysics. Contributions of the Czech School of Economics are documented, particularly the analogy between the length of fatigue cracks in metals exposed to periodic loads over time and the fall of market prices for commodities over time