The model Tom Carter presents at SFI's Complex Systems Summer School
has some overlap - and is deceptively simple:
create 500 agents with 50 dollars each
each timestep
if an agent has any dollars, give one dollar to another agent at
random
That's it. What is the long-run distribution of wealth? hint: a leetle
statistical mechanics :-)
For answers, see Victor Yakovenko's paper here:
http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0001432
Owen and JP both wrote models exploring this though I don't have links
handy. JP? Owen?
-Steve
On Sun, Apr 12, 2009 at 8:00 AM, Russ Abbott <[email protected]>
wrote:
Does anyone know of good examples of generic agent-based market
economies? I'm thinking of something as simple as this.
A population consists of agents each of which has certain continuing
needs (such as food, clothing, shelter, Internet access, etc.) to
survive. As a starting point, let's assume that each agent needs one
unit of each of N resources every time period. Let's also assume
that each agent is specialized and is capable of creating enough of
one of the needed resources to satisfy the needs of N agents. (The
fact that I used the same N in both places was intentional.) To keep
it simple let's assume that these acts of creation occur from
scratch, i.e., that the creator doesn't need raw materials, that all
that's necessary for an agent to create a needed resource is that
the agent be alive. The agents presumably develop a barter economy,
trading the resources they create for the resources they need to
stay alive. Perhaps markets develop, and perhaps money develops. At
this point the economy should be fairly stable. Each agent creates
enough stuff so that s/he can trade it for what s/he needs to stay
live.
Perhaps some of the agents learn how to be more efficient in
creating their resource and begin to accumulate "wealth" in some
form. Perhaps the agents have discretionary desires, which they
fill if they have enough resources left over after meeting their
basic needs. Perhaps there are communal services that are paid for
by taxes or memberships. This could become increasingly elaborate.
It seems to me that models of this sort must have been developed --
perhaps many times. Does anyone know of any references to this sort
of work?
Thanks.
-- Russ Abbott
_____________________________________________
Professor, Computer Science
California State University, Los Angeles
o Check out my blog at http://bluecatblog.wordpress.com/
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============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
