Agent-Based Models in Economics: A Toolkit

In contrast to mainstream economics, complexity theory conceives the economy as a complex system of heterogeneous interacting agents characterised by limited information and bounded rationality. Agent Based Models (ABMs) are the analytical and computational tools developed by the proponents of this emerging methodology. Aimed at students and scholars of contemporary economics, this book includes a comprehensive toolkit for agent-based computational economics, now quickly becoming the new way to study evolving economic systems. Leading scholars in the field explain how ABMs can be applied fruitfully to many real-world economic examples and represent a great advancement over mainstream approaches. The essays discuss the methodological bases of agent-based approaches and demonstrate step-by-step how to build, simulate and analyse ABMs and how to validate their outputs empirically using the data. They also present a wide set of applications of these models to key economic topics, including the business cycle, labour markets, and economic growth.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Agent-Based Computational Economics: What, Why, When
Chapter 3 Agent-Based Models As Recursive Systems
Chapter 4 Rationality, Behavior, And Expectations
Chapter 5 Agents’ Behavior And Learning
Chapter 6 Interaction
Chapter 7 The Agent-Based Experiment
Chapter 8 Empirical Validation Of Agent-Based Models
Chapter 9 Estimation Of Agent-Based Models
Chapter 10 Epilogue