Homepage for Econ 308

Agent-Based Computational Economics (ACE):
Growing Economies from the Bottom Up

Last Updated: 18 February 2024

Last Course Offering: Spring 2009 Instructor: Leigh Tesfatsion Professor of Economics Courtesy Professor of Mathematics and     Electrical & Computer Engineering Department of Economics Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 50011-1070 https://faculty.sites.iastate.edu/tesfatsi tesfatsi AT iastate.edu

(Graphic by T. Eymann)

Econ 308 Syllabus (Reading & Exercises) Econ 308 Exam Policy Information Econ 308 Exercise Policy Information Econ 308 Course Project Information ACE Website

Course Objectives Course Credits Course Prerequisites Course Activities Course Grading Background Texts Software Resources Disability Statement

Course Objectives:

Modern economies are complex systems that can sometimes go awry --- witness the current financial crisis! How to get a handle on this complexity?

One approach is to model an economy computationally as a "virtual world" populated by interacting "agents." These agents can include people, social groupings, institutions, and/or biological and physical entities.

The developer of the virtual world specifies the initial states of the agents comprising the economy. One objective might be to study current empirical conditions. Another objective might be to study hypothetical conditions of interest in order to see what happens. Once the initial agent states are set, the virtual world runs forward in time driven by agent interactions, much like a bacteria culture grows in a laboratory petri dish.

Econ 308 introduces students to this exciting new virtual-world methodology for the study of economic systems. Tentatively scheduled course topics include:

• decentralized market economies as complex adaptive systems;
• development and use of computational laboratories;
• learning and the embodied mind;
• evolution of norms;
• formation of economic trade networks;
• exploration of specific types of market processes (e.g. financial markets, agricultural markets, energy markets, labor markets, and automated Internet auctions);
• empirical validation issues.

As indicated at the following site, agent-based modeling is now supporting scientific research and technology for a wide variety of commercial applications: 50 Facts About Agent-Based Modeling (pdf,6M)

Course Credits:

Three credits. Graduate students can enroll in Econ 308 for non-major credit. Econ 308 is cross-listed as an HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) course.

Course Prerequisites:

Principles-level microeconomics (or instructor permission), and a willingness to learn and apply simple programming tools. Previous study of programming is desirable but not required. For more info, see the Econ 308 course syllabus or contact Leigh Tesfatsion.

Course Activities:

• Discussions of assigned readings and exercises
• Hands-on experience using demonstration software
• Introduction to agent-based modeling tools
• Student course projects

Course Grading:

Student grades will be based on:

1. an in-class written midterm exam scheduled for Thursday March 12 (30 percent);
2. assigned take-home and/or in-class exercises related to required readings (30 percent);
3. general attendance and participation in class discussion(15 percent);
4. a written course project report on some student-selected topic related to ACE, due on the last day of class (25 percent).

Please visit the Midterm Exam Information Site for more information about the midterm exam.

Regarding take-home exercises, for some of these exercises students will be assigned to small exercise teams. An attempt will be made to ensure that each team includes students with background training in both economics and computer programming. These exercise teams will be asked to work together on assigned exercises. For more detailed information about course policy regarding exercise assignments, please visit the Exercise Policy Information Site.

Students will also be encouraged (but not required) to work in self-selected teams for their course projects. Project topic areas and scope can be tailored to student backgrounds and interests as long as the relationship of the project to Econ 308 course materials is clearly demonstrated. For more detailed information about course projects, including suggested project topics, please visit the Course Project Information Site.

Background Texts:

• David Batten, Discovering Artificial Economics: How Agents Learn and Economies Evolve, Perseus Books, Westview Press, 2000, ISBN: 0-8133-9770-7.

  Note: Unfortunately this book is now out of print. Individual chapters (text only, without figures) are linked at the Econ 308 syllabus. However, if you are willing and able to handle a rather large download, the entire Batten book (figures included) in pdf can be accessed at here (pdf,17MB).

• Andy Clark, Being There: Putting Brain, Body, and World Back Together Again, MIT Press, Paperback Edition, 1998, ISBN: 0-262-53156-9.

  Note: Andy Clark's entire book is a delightful treat, covering controversial "embodied mind" issues with verve and offbeat (but cogent) examples from everyday life.

• Matt Weisfeld, The Object-Oriented Thought Process, SAMS Publishing (Division of Macmillan), Indianapolis, Indiana, Second Edition, 2003 (paperback).

  Note: This book is designed to help newcomers to object-oriented programming (OOP) to learn guidelines for solid class design, to master the major concepts of inheritance, composition, interfaces, and abstract classes, and to create components to use in building more sophisticated systems. The author motivates and illustrates his points by taking readers step by step through concrete examples. Simple Java code segments are used to demonstrate concept implementations, but prior study of Java is neither assumed nor required.

Software Resources (recommended for students interested in doing original programming and/or experiments for their course projects):

• RepastJ: A Software Toolkit for Agent-Based Social Science Modeling

  Repast is a freely available agent-based toolkit that supports model development in a number of different languages (Java, C++, C#, and Visual Basic). This site is a self-study guide for Java-based Repast (RepastJ) for newcomers to agent-based modeling (ABM) in the social sciences who want to do original ABM programming. The site includes pointers to RepastJ tutorials, demonstration software, and various other forms of instructional materials to help get you started doing ABM with RepastJ.

• Netlogo: An Agent-Based Toolkit

  Netlogo is a cross-platform multi-agent programmable modeling environment. In its original form (Starlogo), Netlogo was specifically designed for K-12 students, and it has retained its emphasis on ease of use at the cost of some modeling flexibility. Resources available at this site include Netlogo tutorials, demonstration software, and various other forms of instructional materials to help get you started doing ABM with Netlogo.

• ACE/CAS Computational Laboratories and Demonstration Software

  The computational laboratories (CLs) accessible at this site include both ACE CLs and general complex adaptive systems (CAS) CLs. The purpose of this site is to facilitate the understanding of the ACE/CAS methodology by permitting students to obtain hands-on experience running simple ACE/CAS experiments under different parameter settings with no original programming required and with rapid visual feedback of findings.

• ACE/CAS General Software and Toolkits

  This site includes a wide variety of links to software, programming languages, and programming toolkits currently in use for agent-based computational modeling.

Disability Statement:

If you have a disability and require accommodations, please contact the instructor early in the semester so that your learning needs may be appropriately met. You will need to provide documentation of your disability to the Disability Resources (DR) office, located on the main floor of the Student Services Building, Room 1076, 515-294-7220.