Agent-based Modeling and Experimental Economics

This course will focus on agent-based modeling in a number of economic environments. Each economic model will first be briefly analyzed using the traditional economic analysis techniques. Then, it will proceed in describing and analyzing the properties of the models when an agent-based modeling approach is adopted. In our agent-based modeling, the emphasis will be on applications that incorporate evolutionary algorithms (genetic algorithms, genetic programming, and evolutionary programming).

However, we will also compare the behavior of a number of other algorithms that have been frequently used in the literature on modeling economic agents adaptation. Analysis of the behavior of agent-based model will then be followed by presentation of the experimental evidence of the behavior of human subjects in the same environments. Subsequently, there will be discussion whether agent-based models can capture experimental behavior.