We are dealing with microeconomic demand functions in a virtual company simulation. Our partial research is based on how to use Marshallian demand function and Cobb-Douglas utility function to count the price negotiated between consumers and sellers.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262640180_Microeconomic_Demand_Functions_Implementation_in_Java_Experiments

Chapter Microeconomic Demand Functions Implementation in Java Experiments

The closest model so far: "The Eurace@Unibi Model: An Agent-Based Macroeconomic Model for Economic Policy Analysis' by Herbert Dawid et. al.

Even tough it contains 'macroeconomic' on the title, it is a microfounded model with detailed households, firms, labor, region. ;)

Best,

Its really complex :)

Agreed. Any One simpler? For .starters.

Dear Bernardo.

First of all, I am very interested in your question and would also love to have an overview over these models. May be you could keep us informed about your progress.

Some of the ingredients that you ask for are included in a land-use model by K. Lindgren and his group (*). Consumption is not explicitly modeled, however. Anyway, it might be worth having a look not least because the setting allows to relate agent dynamics, the corresponding price dynamics and equilibrium solutions.

(*) There is actually a working paper but I don't find it on the net.

But information is also here:

http://www.complexity.ntu.edu.sg/Events/CrudeLookattheWhole/Documents/Kristian%20Lindgren.pdf

and

http://publications.lib.chalmers.se/records/fulltext/166700.pdf

Best regards and good luck.

Sven Banisch.

Thanks a lot Sven.

Certainly, this will be on my radar in the coming months and I will report it here!

Anyway, there are a lot of land-use models. I also have one published. However, from my present perspective land-use (usually restricted to urban/rural) is not enough.

In Brazil, dense urban areas face mixed, unclear land use. Alos open-space, educational district are not that relevant.

Fiscal analysis, that is, where to tax and where to provide public services is a real issue.

So, my interest is to model micromarkets sufficiently enough so that I can study effects of tax administrative boundaries changes. That is it.

Best,

Bernardo

By the way, look for Herbert Dawid who is also from Bielefeld University. He is participating in a new project here in Brazil; 'Modeling Complex Systems for Public Policies' and coming for a great seminar in September 1-4. He'll definetely be able to help you (us).

;).

Cheers,

I think an issue here is that most agents in ABM have their behavior strongly coupled with the market structure they model. Most financial markets model have agents that interact with an order book in ways that would look silly in any other markets.

A couple of papers that I thought were very general in terms of approach were Howitt&Clower(2000) and Gintis(2007). The first has very decentralized markets while the second very centralized. Now though the agent behavior is very tied to the information available to them (none in the Howitt's paper and a lot in Gintis).

To me the best approach to build a model is to start with the basic agent trading behavior and move on from there. You can start with Zero Intelligence Plus by Cliff. It helps solve continuous double auctions, so you can usually build markets around it.

I finish by saying, and I know it's bad taste, that I just published an article exactly about this. I also made my own agents,"zero-knowledge traders", and they solve basic supply and demand models. I made them as simple as possible so that anyone can plug them in their own simulations. It's open-access on JASSS and I can really use some feedback so if you are interested it's here (or on my profile) : http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/17/3/4.html

http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/17/3/4.html

Article The Emergence of Economic Organization

Article The Dynamics of General Equilibrium

Article Zero is Not Enough: On The Lower Limit of Agent Intelligence...

@Roman and Bernardo: to directly answer the question, there's an overview of ABM micro/macro models in an upcoming Handbook chapter (see attached):

"Section 2. Recent Developments in Agent-Based Macroeconomic Modelling"

@Roman: Concerning complexity, I have the feeling that the Eurace@Unibi Model is perceived to be more complex than it actually is. (Disclaimer: I have a personal interest in the model.) Yes, there's a lot of details, and yes, there's a lot of code. But it also models 5 different types of markets! At least we tried really hard to make everything open, and you can now also download the entire code and run it in a virtual machine, something not many models have allowed you to do so far, in fact.

Chapter Agent-Based Macroeconomic Modeling and Policy Analysis: The ...

Dear Bernardo,

Very interesting question and thanks for sharing your research interest, in particular the Brazilian problem of land fragmentation that is perhaps akin to that of India.  #1 link: perhaps if we can ascertain the productivity of land parcels then we can tax/subsidize/support accordingly ?Also found certain chapters of the edited book (#2 link to be interesting-non financial applications). The #3 link- on Schelling's checkerboard model of segregation- one of the more primitive agent-based models- precursor to our modern ACE/ABM approach may be adapted to land-related problems?

Cheers,

Bernard

http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/61652/2/WB-land-frag-alt_measures-AAEA.pdf

http://www.amazon.com/Emergent-Results-Artificial-Economics-Mathematical/dp/3642211070

http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/12/1/6/appendixB/Schelling1969.html

Thanks for the links, Bernard. After sometime without time to come back to it, I intend to do so in the next months. Thanks for the Indian example. Best,

Found two more: LENGNICK, M. Agent-based macroeconomics: A baseline model and TAGHAWI-NEJAD, D. Modelling the economy as an agent-based process.

New book by Pietro Terna and authors. Table of contents seems fantastic.'Agent-based models of the economy'. https://goo.gl/0gE64Y

Glad to share that I now have a rough (very rough) first-version out-of-the-oven fully-working microeconomic spatially-explicit agent-based model with citizens, families, firms, 4 region-government, a labor, goods and house market. 

Government collect taxes and spends the money on ammeliorating region-quality-of-life index.

Prices of houses adjust accordingly.

Built as an extension/adaptation/inspiration of Lengnick (2013). In Python

Now, verify, verify, verify. Check parameters, outputs, calibrate. Write a draft!

Updates on https://twitter.com/D_young_69

Best,

Hi Bernardo,

Most welcome and thanks for the updates on your progress. Looks interesting! Something spatially-explicit is indeed needed if we want our models to have a higher degree of relevance.

All the best!

Hey y,all,

I (along with Isaque Eberhardt) have finally put together a nice ABM model with three markets (labor, goods, real estate) expanding on Lengnick's work. It looks good. Take a loog (in Portuguese). English version coming out in 10 days tops. http://goo.gl/YdY9KO

Best,

p.s. As it is a very first version of a small number of SIMPLE models, comments are extremely welcome. Thanks.

http://goo.gl/YdY9KO

looking forward to reading it in English!

Congratulations!

Bernardo Alves Furtado　wrote

• a lot of macroeconomic models, especially of financial markets. That is not what I am searching for. I want a detailed, step-by-step design of consumers, labor, land market that I can build upon.

If you are searching step-by-step design, why do you exempt financial market modes? Have you ever examined U-MART? This is an Agent-based Model but human agents can participate in them.  A book is published with CD-ROM and you can use it ready made:

Shiozawa et als. Artificial Market Experiments with the U-Mart, Springer Verlag, 2008.  

You can use this system as economic experiment tool. See also my preprint paper and others:

A Guided Tour of the Backside of Agent-Based Simualtionhttps://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yoshinori_Shiozawa/contributions

Thanks a lot, Professor. I've downloaded that and will examine it carefully.

However, I was looking (at the time of the question) for the mechanisms behind ABM that were (easily) implemented. That is: how are salaries decided upon? How firms set prices? How is the process of search in the labor Market.

This first model presented in Portuguese contains these answers for the 3 markets: labor, goods and real estate. I went to the literature to find support for my implementation on the decisions.

The model is in Portuguese, but the ODD in English is available, as well as the PseudoCode for the markets.

I promise it in English for next week.

Thanks again,

Best

p.s. A recente and valuable reference is

Agent-based Models of the Economy From Theories to Applications  

Riccardo Boero, Matteo Morini, Michele Sonnessa, Pietro Terna

Technical Report Modelo espacial simples de uma economia com agentes: uma pro...

There is an overview article on agent-based models in economics by Herbert Dawid titled "Modeling the Economy as a Complex System". It is Chapter 9 in the collected volume that can be downloaded here:

http://www.ipea.gov.br/portal/images/stories/PDFs/150727_livro_modeling_complex_systems_public_policies.pdf

Dear Florian, thanks a lot! It feels really good to have a chapter recommended from a book you have organized yourself! Thanks, indeed.

Anyway, after having asked the question quite some time ago, now I have put together the references and developed the model I think is a very good start.

Because it is a first, we would really welcome comments and suggestions.

Please, take a look at:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282975962_A_simple_agent-based_spatial_model_of_the_economy_tools_for_policy

Best,

Technical Report A simple agent-based spatial model of the economy: tools for policy

How funny! :) Did not realize that you are the editor, and also did not realize that several preceding answers referred to the work of Herbert Dawid. Sorry for my negligence, but it does indeed show that your work has impact and visibility -- people from around the world refer to it :).

Hi all,

I recently came across a model (by Pascal Seppecher, Isabelle Salle and Marc Lavoie) in which all the formulas and details of agents and firm level decisions are detailed. I thought I should share:

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01486597/

Enjoy.

Of course, there are all the papers from Dosi and team. However, I read one about the Labor Market and I got the impression (confirmed by one of the authors) that the model is solved through differential equations (which would place the model more in the systems dynamics realm? - Or maybe this should be the topic of another question?)

Here: https://ideas.repec.org/p/ssa/lemwps/2016-27.html

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01486597/

https://ideas.repec.org/p/ssa/lemwps/2016-27.html

Dear all,

I have just read @Herbert_Dawid Article Agent-Based Macroeconomics

Thus far, I had never read such a clear narrative on ABM. It conceptualizes MABMs, compares them to DSGE models and establishes what is an emerging benchmark of agents' decisions to ABM.

The thing is, he calls them (appropriately) MacroeconomicsABMs. When by construction, talking about agentes, the design and decision-making protocols are microeconomic in nature.

I was also glad that Book PolicySpace: modelagem baseada em agentes

Article Agent-based macroeconomics: A baseline model

However, PolicySpace (available in Portuguese, summary in English Article PolicySpace: A Modeling Platform

That is:

MABMs meets LUTs! (This title is hereby saved for future use!)

Best,

P.S. PolicySpace in English Book PolicySpace: agent-based modeling

We have published Lengnick's Baseline Economy model in the form of a JavaScript-based simulation: https://sim4edu.com/sims/20/Lengnick-Baseline-Economy-1