Home Page: Leigh Tesfatsion

Address: Professor of Economics, Mathematics,     and Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of Economics/Heady 375 Iowa State University Ames, IA 50011-1070 FAX: (515) 294-0221 http://www.econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/ tesfatsi AT iastate.edu

Primary Research Areas

• Integrated Retail and Wholesale Power System Operations with Smart Grid Functionality

• Agent-Based Test Beds for Restructured Wholesale Power Markets

• Agent-Based Computational Economics (ACE)

• Flexible Least Squares (diagnostic tool for model specification)

• Adaptive Computation Methods for Nonlinear Systems (tracking of solutions of parameterized nonlinear systems over parameter intervals; automation of higher-order partial derivative evaluation; adaptive homotopy with "smart" continuation parameters)

• Trade Network Games (endogenous trade network formation through choice and refusal of trade game partners)

• Optimality and Efficiency in Open-Ended Dynamic Economies (e.g., First Welfare Theorem for overlapping generations economies)

• Learning via Criterion Filtering (direct updating of dynamic programming value functions)

Current Research Topics

• Integrated Retail and Wholesale Power Market Operations with Price-Responsive Retail Demand
• Testing the efficiency and reliability of restructured wholesale power market designs
• Development of open-source software for electricity markets
• Learning and coordination in decentralized market economies

Course Preparations Online

• Masters Level Macroeconomic Theory (Econ 502). Next Scheduled: Fall 2013
• Economic Systems for Electric Power Planning (EE/Econ 458 Team-Taught). Last Taught: Fall 2011.
• Money, Banking, and Financial Institutions (Econ 353). Last Taught: Spring 2011
• Restructuring of Wholesale Power Markets (EE/Econ 458). Last Taught: Spring 2009.
• Agent-Based Computational Economics (Econ 308). Last Taught: Spring 2009.
• RePast: A Software Toolkit for Agent-Based Social Science Modeling, a detailed self-study resource site for local and long-distance learners, continuously maintained.
• VII Trento Summer School: Intensive Course on Agent-Based Computational Economics. July 3-21, 2006.
• Macroeconomic Coordination (Ph.D. Level Course Module) for Econ 606: Advanced Macro Topics. Last Taught: Spring 2004 (first five weeks).
• Macroeconomic Coordination (Masters Level Course Module) for Econ 502: Macroeconomic Theory. Last Taught: Fall 2003 (last five weeks).
• Economic Growth (Ph.D. Level Course Module) for Econ 602: Ph.D. Macroeconomic Theory I. Last Taught: Spring 2003 (first five weeks).
• Ph.D. Macroeconomic Theory II (Econ 604). Last Taught: Spring 1997.
• Intermediate Macroeconomics (Econ 302). Last Taught: Fall 1996.
• Ph.D. Financial Markets and Monetary Economics (Econ 654). Last Taught: Spring 1996.

Open-Source Software Releases

• AMES Wholesale Power Market Test Bed (Java): Agent-Based Modeling of Electricity Systems (homepage)
• DCOPFJ (Java): A DC Optimal Power Flow Solver (homepage)
• TNGLab (C++/VB): Trade Network Game Laboratory (homepage)
• FLS-TVLR (Fortran): Flexible Least Squares for Time-Varying Linear Regression (homepage)
• GFLS-ALS (Fortran): Generalized Flexible Least Squares for Approximately Linear Systems (homepage)
• NASA (Fortran): Nonlocal Automated Sensitivity Analysis (homepage)
• MAM (Fortran): Multicriteria Associative Memories for Nonlinear Estimation (homepage)

General Resource Websites Maintained

• On-Line Guide for Newcomers to Agent-Based Modeling
  in the Social Sciences (R. Axelrod and L. Tesfatsion)
• Agent-Based Computational Economics
• Formation of Economic and Social Networks
• Open-Source Software for Electricity Market Research, Teaching, and Training
• General Resources on Electricity Restructuring
• General Resources for Macro and Financial Economics
• An Experimentally-Based Theory of Gravity by Morton F. Spears