José Moran is completing a PhD in the interdisciplinary applications of statistical physics and complex systems under the direction of Jean-Philippe Bouchaud and Jean-Pierre Nadal.  He graduated from the École Polytechnique and the École Normale Supérieure, where he studied applied mathematics and statistical physics. He now works at the Centre d’Analyse et de Mathématique Sociales in Paris, as well as within the Capital Fund Management/École polytechnique Chair of Econophysics and Complex Systems.

His research has  focused on what is generally known as the “small shocks, large business cycle” puzzle, namely how small idiosyncratic shocks to firms can grow into large economic fluctuations, instead of compensating each other when one looks at aggregate quantities. To better understand this he has done empirical work to identify statistical facts that emerge from large datasets of firm level data, as well as theoretical work on the possible mechanisms of shock propagation in networked economies. He is also keen on doing numerical simulations of agent-based models, with a particular interest in memory and imitation effects in agents’ decisions, and uses tools from statistical physics to find their appropriate analytical description and solution.

After his PhD, José is set to join the Mathematical Institute and the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the University of Oxford as a postdoctoral researcher under Doyne Farmer.