Agent-Based
Computational Economics

News Items
December 2005

Prepared by:

Leigh Tesfatsion

Department of Economics

Iowa State University

Ames, Iowa 50011-1070

http://www.econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/

tesfatsi at iastate.edu

ACE Website Home Page:

http://www.econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/ace.htm

Appended below are news items that might be of interest to researchers interested in agent-based computational economics (ACE), the computational study of economies modeled as dynamic systems of interacting agents. Items of more permanent interest will be incorporated at the ACE Website.

ACE news items are periodically posted at the ACE Website in batched html-document form during the regular academic year (September-May) as news warrants (and time permits!). Whenever a new posting is made, a brief announcement giving a pointer to this posting is emailed to all participants in a moderated announcements-only Majordomo ACE news list. If you would like to subscribe to (or unsubscribe from) this announcements-only ACE news list, please send an email message to majordomo@iastate.edu with the following message in the email body:

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Thank you.

• General Announcements
• Book Announcements
• Journal Announcements
• Research Sites and Groups
• General Software and Hardware
• Course and Program Announcements

General Announcements

• The Seventh Trento Summer School (3 July - 21 July, 2006) will offer an Intensive Course in Agent-Based Computational Economics. The mini-school will be held at Sardagna Trento, Italy, a beautiful retreat in the Dolomite Mountains accessed by cable car. The co-directors of this mini-school are Robert Axtell (The Brookings Institution) and Leigh Tesfatsion (Iowa State University). Guest lecturers will include John Duffy (University of Pittsburgh), Mauro Gallegati (University of Ancona), and Herbert Gintis (Central European University and External Faculty, Santa Fe Institute).

  

• The Management Committee of the European Social Simulation Association (ESSA) has instituted a program to promote social simulation, and especially to support the organization of workshops on social simulation. Applications for support will be examined by the ESSA Management Committee twice a year.

  

• I am pleased to report that the Agent-Based Computational Economics Website now incorporates a Google local-site search box towards the top of the home page. This facility should permit users to more easily search and navigate the many pages that now constitute this extensive resource site on agent-based modeling.

Book Announcements

• Leigh Tesfatsion and Kenneth L. Judd (eds.), Handbook of Computational Economics, Vol. 2: Agent-Based Computational Economics, Handbooks in Economics Series, North-Holland Imprint, Elsevier, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 872 pp., 2006. ISBN: 0-444-51253-5 (Table of Contents and Abstracts).
  From the Publisher: "The explosive growth in computational power over the past several decades offers new tools and opportunities for economists. This handbook volume surveys recent research on Agent-based Computational Economics (ACE), the computational study of economic processes modeled as dynamic systems of interacting agents. Empirical referents for "agents" in ACE models can range from individuals or social groups with learning capabilities to physical world features with no cognitive function. Topics covered include: learning; empirical validation; network economics; social dynamics; financial markets; innovation and technological change; organizations; market design;automated markets and trading agents; political economy; social-ecological systems; computational laboratory development; and general methodological issues."

  

  David Colander (ed.), Post Walrasian Macroeconomics: Beyond the Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium Model (Book Site), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2006. ISBN: 0-521-865484.

  From the Publisher: "This book provides state-of-the-art perspectives on macro theory from many of the world's leading theorists and methodologists. (It is suitable) as a course book or supplementary textbook in graduate macroeconomics. (The book also) includes a historical section that surveys the development of macroeconomics."

  

  Samuel Bowles, Microeconomics: Behavior, Institutions, and Evolution, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 608pp., February 2006. ISBN: 0-691-12638-0 (Book Site).

  From the Publisher: "In this novel introduction to modern microeconomic theory, Samuel Bowles returns to the classical economists' interest in the wealth and poverty of nations and people, the workings of the institutions of capitalist economies, and the coevolution of individual preferences and the structures of markets, firms, and other institutions. Using recent advances in evolutionary game theory, contract theory, behavioral experiments, and the modeling of dynamic processes, he develops a theory of how economic institutions shape individual behavior, and how institutions evolve due to individual actions, technological change, and chance events. Topics addressed include institutional innovation, social preferences, nonmarket social interactions, social capital, equilibrium unemployment, credit constraints, economic power, generalized increasing returns, disequilibrium outcomes, and path dependency."

  Note: Chapters 11-13 of this book use agent-based models as examples of evolutionary game theory.

  

  Shu-Heng Chen, Lakhmi Jain, Chung-Ching Tai, Computational Economics: A Perspective from Computational Intelligence, Idea Group Inc., 300 pp., 2006. ISBN: 1-591-40649-8 (Book Site)

  From the Publisher: "(This book) provides models of various economic and financial issues while using compuational intelligence as a foundation. The scope of this volume comprises finance, economics, management, organizational theory, and public policies. It explains the ongoing and novel research in this field, and displays the power of these computational methods in coping with difficult problems with methods from traditional perspectives. By encouraging the discussion of different views, this book serves as an introductory and inspiring volume that helps to flourish studies in computational economics."

  

  Francesco C. Billari and Alexia Prskawetz (eds.), Agent-Based Computational Demography: Using Simulation to Improve Our Understanding of Demographic Behavior, Springer, 210pp., 2003. ISBN: 3-7908-1550-0 (Book Site).

  From the Publisher: Agent-Based Computational Demography (ABCD) aims at starting a new stream of research among social scientists whose interests lie in understanding demographic behaviour. The book takes a micro-demographic (agent-based) perspective and illustrates the potentialities of computer simulation as an aid in theory building. The chapters of the book, written by leading experts either in demography or in agent-based modelling, address several key questions. Why do we need agent-based computational demography? How can ABCD be applied to the study of migrations, family demography, and historical demography? What are the peculiarities of agent-based models as applied to the demography of human populations? ABCD is of interest to all scientists interested in studying demographic behaviour, as well as to computer scientists and modellers who are looking for a promising field of application."

  

  R. H. Bordini, M. Dastani, J. Dix, A. El Fallah Seghrouchni (eds.), Multi-Agent Programming: Languages, Platforms and Applications, Series: Multiagent Systems, Artificial Societies, and Simulated Organizations, Vol. 15, XXXIV, 296 pp., 2005. ISBN: 0-387-24568-5 (Book Site).

  From the Publisher: "Multi-agent programming is an essential reference for anyone interested in the most up-to-date developments in MAS programming. While previous research has focused on the development of formal and informal approaches to analyze and specify Multi-Agent Systems, this book focuses on the development of programming languages and tools which not only support MAS programming, but also implement key concepts of MAS in a unified framework. The book consists of three parts. Part I describes four multi-agent programming languages that are based on computational logic or process algebra. These languages are Jason, 3APL, IMPACT, and CLAIM/SyMPA. Part II presents three multi-agent programming languages that extend or are based on Java. These programming languages are JADE, Jadex and JACK. Part III provides two significant industry specific applications: the DEFACTO System for coordinating human-agent teams for disaster response, and the ARTIMIS rational dialogue agent technology. Also featured are seven appendices for quick reference and comparison."

Journal Announcements

• JASSS Volume 8(4)
  The fourth issue of Volume 8 of the Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation (JASSS) was published in October 2005. This issue includes four refereed articles, a special section titled "Epistemological Perspectives on Simulation," and a Book Review.
  JASSS is an electronic refereed journal devoted to the exploration and understanding of social processes by means of computer simulation. It is freely available, with no subscription, at the JASSS Homepage. http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/JASSS.html

  

  Social Science Computation

  The American Journal of Sociology (Volume 110, Number 4, January 2005) has published a special issue titled "Social Science Computation," edited by Nigel Gilbert and Andrew Abbott. Institutional and individual subscribers can access the journal articles here.

  

  Multiagent and Grid Systems

  Multiagent and Grid Systems - An International Journal aims to provide a timely and focal research forum for academics and practioners in the thematic areas of multiagent systems, grid computing and their intersections. It publishes peer-refereed research and application papers of high-level technical quality and scientific standard. The Journal features original contributed papers, state-of-the-art survey papers, and technical papers on implementations and applications.

Research Sites and Groups

• Empirical Validation of Agent-Based Models
  In Spring 2005, Marco Janssen and Elinor Ostrom organized an Indiana University workshop focusing on the empirical validation of agent-based models. Inspired by this workshop, a new site has been developed titled Empirical Validation of Agent-Based Computational Models. The objective of this site is to provide a representative sampling of ongoing work on this critically important topic. Additional suggestions for materials to include are welcome.

  

  Complexity Page

  Scotte Page (Complex Systems, Political Science, and Economics, U of Michigan) has developed a Complexity Page. Among other things, this site provides an introductory document on complex systems with embedded agent-based models that show some of the features of complex systems.

  

  Pacific Asian Organization for Agent-Based Modeling

  A group of Asian scholars has organized the Pacific Asian Association for the Agent-Based Approach in Social Systems Science (PAAA). The objective of the PAAA is to promote worldwide activities of the multi-disciplinary community on multi-agent computational economics, organizational science, social dynamics, and complex systems. PAAA brings together researchers and practitioners from diverse fields, such as computer science, system science, economics, physics, sociology, psychology, and complex theory in order to understand emergent and collective phenomena in economic and social systems. The PAAA works closely with its American equivalent, the North American Association for Computational Social and Organization Science (NAACSOS), and its European equivalent, the European Social Simulation Association (ESSA)

  

  Complexity Blog

  Complexity Blog is a new site devoted to the science, engineering, and philosophy of complexity. Topics include the theory and applications of complex systems,methodology, research ideas, engineering of adaptive systems (machine learning, evolutionary algorithms, swarm behavior), and more. The site also has a growing collection of resources for agent-based modeling and various other areas related to complexity science.

  

  ACE Research Resource Sites

  Over the past six months, numerous additional pointers (readings, software, websites) have been added to various ACE research resource sites. See, in particle, the sites on multiple-market modeling, industrial organization, learning and the embodied mind, restructured electricity markets, and evolution of economic networks.

General Software and Hardware Announcements

• VSEit: Versatile Simulation Environment
  Kai-H.Brassel has developed the Java-based VSEit framework that strikes a balance between offering sufficient flexibility for free exploration of complex problem domains and effective measures to relieve the modeler from the more cumbersome parts of programming. One key element of the VSEit architecture is the supplementation of the usual object-oriented class concept with the capability for specifying types of model entities and structures at a high semantic level. For more information, see his June 2001 JASSS article titled "Flexible Modelling with VSEit, the Versatile Simulation Environment for the Internet".

  

  MAS-SOC: Agent-Based Social Science Simulation

  A group of authors has developed a platform for multi-agent based social simulation (MAS-SOC), building on recent progress in the area of agent-oriented programming languages. The approach taken to building multi-agent based simulations includes the use of Jason (an interpreter for an extended version of AgentSpeak) and ELMS (a language for modeling environments with situated cognitive agents). For more information, see their June 2005 JASSS article titled "MAS-SOC: A Social Simulation Platform Based on Agent-Oriented Programming".

  

  Extreme Programming

  Don Wells maintains a site titled Extreme Programming (XP): A Gentle Introduction. XP is a deliberate and disciplined approach to software developement that stresses customer involvement and team work, following simple rules and practices. Another important issue emphasized by XP is not just testing, but testing well. Tests are automated and provide a safety net for programmers and customers alike. Tests are created before the code is written, while the code is written, and after the code is written. About eight years old, XP has been adopted at many variously sized companies and industries worldwide. This site provides a guided tour of XP.

Course and Program Announcements

• Bounded Rationality and Macroeconomics
  Holgar Gerhardt (University of Berlin) has developed a course titled Bounded Rationality and Macroeconomics. The class starts by reviewing the rationality concept commonly employed in economic models ("full rationality") and its implications for the motion of variables of macroeconomic interest: for example, inflation, the smoothness of consumption, and the structure and volume of trading on financial markets. The existence of deviations between the predictions of theoretic models and actual data is investigated. "Full rationality" is then contrasted with approaches viewing humans as being "boundedly rational." Psychological and neurological findings on human decision-making are presented, based on work by Colin Camerer. Models applying these findings to macroeconomic analysis are introduced, with an emphasis on models that assume agents have only limited abilities to gather and process data. Key concepts considered include "rational inattention," the use of heuristics, learning, epidemiological expectations, and robust control. Asset markets are stressed throughout the course as a principal source of illustrations.

  

  Computational Mechanism Design

  David C. Parkes (Harvard University) has developed a course titled CS286r: Computational Mechanism Design. Computational mechanism design is a topic of study at the interface between computer science and economics. The problem domain considers distributed open systems with self-interested agents that seek to improve outcomes in their favor. Examples are drawn from e-commerce (Internet auctions, electronic markets for supply chains, automated bidding agents), and from computational applications such as resource allocation in computational grids and routing across peer-to-peer wireless networks.

  

  Organizational Complexity (University of Bologna, Italy)

  The University of Bologna organized and held a Summer School in July 2005, titled Aspects of Organizational Complexity. Many interesting course materials used for this Summer School are still linked at this site under the "Lectures" section.

Reminder: Items Requested for ACE News Notes

Just a reminder that if you have any information about ACE-related books, journals, teaching materials, software, websites, or miscellaneous news items that you would like to have considered for inclusion in the ACE news notes, please email them to me (along with website information if available) at the following address: tesfatsi at iastate.edu

Copyright © 2005 Leigh Tesfatsion. All Rights Reserved.