Homepage for Econ 308

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

Last Updated: 5 April 2008

Latest Course Offering: Spring 2008
Meeting Time: TR 11-12:20
Meeting Place: East Hall 111
Instructor:: Leigh Tesfatsion; Department of Economics; Iowa State University; Ames, Iowa 50011-1070; http://www.econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/; tesfatsi AT iastate.edu
Instructor Office Hours:: Heady 375, Thursdays 12:40-2:40pm and by arrangement

(Graphic by T. Eymann)

Syllabus (Reading & Exercise Assignments)
Exam Policy Information (3/24/08)
Exercise Policy Information
Course Project Information
ACE Website

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

Course Objectives:

Econ 308 is a fun course stressing a "virtual reality" approach to the study of economic processes.
Modern economies are complicated systems encompassing large numbers of geographically-distributed individuals and social groupings interacting through markets and other forms of institutions. How to get a handle on this complexity?
One approach is to model an economy computationally as a dynamic system of interacting "agents." These agents includes social entities such as people and families, institutional entities such as corporations and legal systems, physical entities such as landscapes and highway systems, and biological entities such as crops and livestock.
The modeler specifies the initial states of the agents comprising an economy either to match empirical conditions or to match hypothesized conditions whose possible effects the modeler wants to test. The modeler then steps back to observe and record what happens as the economy runs forward in time as a "virtual world" driven by agent interactions.
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)
Econ 308 introduces students to this exciting new methodology. The exact topic selection and depth of coverage will depend on student interests and backgrounds. 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. stock markets, agricultural markets, energy markets, labor markets, and automated Internet auctions).

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:

an in-class written midterm exam scheduled for Thursday March 13 (30 percent);
assigned take-home and/or in-class exercises related to required readings (25 percent);
general attendance and participation in class discussion(15 percent);
a written course project report on some student-selected topic related to ACE, due on the last day of class (30 percent).
Please visit the Midterm Exam Information Site for more information about the midterm exam.
Regarding take-home 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, 2000, ISBN: 0-672-31853-9 (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.