Agent-based models are computer models in which a multitude of agents — each embodied in a specific software code — interact. These agents can represent individuals households, firms, institutions, etc. Moreover, “special” agents can be added to observe and monitor individual and collective behavior. One of the main purpose of writing an ACE model is to gain intuitions on the two-way feedback between the microstructure and the macrostructure of a phenomenon of interest. How is it that simple aggregate regularities may arise from individual disorder? Or that a nice structure at an individual level may lead to a complete absence of regularity in the aggregate? How is it that the complex interaction of very simple individuals may lead to surprisingly complicated aggregate dynamics? Or that sophisticated agents may be unable to organize themselves in any interesting way?

The book includes contributions by some of the most distinguished researchers in the field, such as the economists Alan Kirman, Giovanni Dosi, Leigh Tesfatsion and Mauro Gallegati, and the sociologist Nigel Gilbert.

Contents:

• Methodology
• Microsimulation of Labor Dynamics
• Understanding Firm Behaviour
• Industrial Clusters and Firm Interaction
• Mathematical Tools