IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/trn/utwpas/1120.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Agent-Based Modeling of the El Farol Bar Problem

Author

Listed:
  • Shu-Heng Chen
  • Umberto Gostoli

Abstract

In this paper, we study the self-coordination problem as demonstrated by the well-known El Farol problem (Arthur, 1994), which has later become what is known as the minority game in the econophysics community. While the El Farol problem or the minority game has been studied for almost two decades, existing studies are mostly only concerned with efficiency. The equality issue, however, has been largely neglected. In this paper, we build an agent-based model to study both efficiency and equality and ask whether a decentralized society can ever possibly self-coordinate a result with the highest efficiency while also maintaining the highest degree of equality. Our agent-based model shows the possibility of achieving this social optimum. The two key determinants to make this happen are social preferences and social networks. Hence, not only doe institutions (networks) matter, but individual characteristics (preferences) also matter. The latter are open to human-subject experiments for further examination.

Suggested Citation

  • Shu-Heng Chen & Umberto Gostoli, 2011. "Agent-Based Modeling of the El Farol Bar Problem," ASSRU Discussion Papers 1120, ASSRU - Algorithmic Social Science Research Unit.
    • Handle: RePEc:trn:utwpas:1120
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.assru.economia.unitn.it/files/DP_8_2011_II.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Erev, Ido & Roth, Alvin E, 1998. "Predicting How People Play Games: Reinforcement Learning in Experimental Games with Unique, Mixed Strategy Equilibria," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(4), pages 848-881, September.
    2. Duncan Whitehead, 2008. "The El Farol Bar Problem Revisited: Reinforcement Learning in a Potential Game," Edinburgh School of Economics Discussion Paper Series 186, Edinburgh School of Economics, University of Edinburgh.
    3. Ann M. Bell & William A. Sethares, 1999. "The El Farol Problem and the Internet: Congestion and Coordination Failure," Computing in Economics and Finance 1999 812, Society for Computational Economics.
    4. Franke, Reiner, 2003. "Reinforcement learning in the El Farol model," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 367-388, July.
    5. Challet, Damien & Marsili, M & Ottino, Gabriele, 2004. "Shedding light on El Farol," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 332(C), pages 469-482.
    6. Arthur, W Brian, 1994. "Inductive Reasoning and Bounded Rationality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 406-411, May.
    7. Challet, D. & Zhang, Y.-C., 1997. "Emergence of cooperation and organization in an evolutionary game," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 246(3), pages 407-418.
    8. Eduardo Zambrano, 2004. "The Interplay between Analytics and Computation in the Study of Congestion Externalities: The Case of the El Farol Problem," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 6(2), pages 375-395, May.
    9. Slanina, František, 2000. "Social organization in the Minority Game model," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 286(1), pages 367-376.
    10. Kalinowski, Thomas & Schulz, Hans-Jörg & Briese, Michael, 2000. "Cooperation in the Minority Game with local information," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 277(3), pages 502-508.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shu-Heng Chen & Umberto Gostoli, 2017. "Coordination in the El Farol Bar problem: The role of social preferences and social networks," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 12(1), pages 59-93, April.
    2. Giorgio Fagiolo & Marco Valente, 2005. "Minority Games, Local Interactions, and Endogenous Networks," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 25(1), pages 41-57, February.
    3. Lustosa, Bernardo C. & Cajueiro, Daniel O., 2010. "Constrained information minority game: How was the night at El Farol?," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(6), pages 1230-1238.
    4. Pietro Dindo & Jan Tuinstra, 2006. "A Behavioral Model for Participation Games with Negative Feedback," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 06-073/1, Tinbergen Institute.
    5. Kets, W., 2008. "Networks and learning in game theory," Other publications TiSEM 7713fce1-3131-498c-8c6f-3, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    6. Xin-Jie Zhang & Yong Tang & Jason Xiong & Wei-Jia Wang & Yi-Cheng Zhang, 2018. "Dynamics of Cooperation in Minority Games in Alliance Networks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-17, December.
    7. Duncan Whitehead, 2008. "The El Farol Bar Problem Revisited: Reinforcement Learning in a Potential Game," Edinburgh School of Economics Discussion Paper Series 186, Edinburgh School of Economics, University of Edinburgh.
    8. Arthur Charpentier & Romuald Élie & Carl Remlinger, 2023. "Reinforcement Learning in Economics and Finance," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 62(1), pages 425-462, June.
    9. Chmura, Thorsten & Pitz, Thomas, 2004. "Minority Game: Experiments and Simulations of Traffic Scenarios," Bonn Econ Discussion Papers 23/2004, University of Bonn, Bonn Graduate School of Economics (BGSE).
    10. Giulio Bottazzi & Giovanna Devetag, 2002. "Coordination and self-organization in minority games: experimental evidence," CEEL Working Papers 0215, Cognitive and Experimental Economics Laboratory, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italia.
    11. Giovanna Devetag & Francesca Pancotto & Thomas Brenner, 2011. "The Minority Game Unpacked: Coordination and Competition in a Team-based Experiment," CEEL Working Papers 1102, Cognitive and Experimental Economics Laboratory, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italia.
    12. Challet, Damien, 2008. "Inter-pattern speculation: Beyond minority, majority and $-games," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 85-100, January.
    13. Adão, Luiz F.S. & Silveira, Douglas & Ely, Regis A. & Cajueiro, Daniel O., 2022. "The impacts of interest rates on banks’ loan portfolio risk-taking," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    14. Guglielmo Maria Caporale & Antoaneta Serguieva & Hao Wu, 2009. "Financial contagion: evolutionary optimization of a multinational agent‐based model," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(1‐2), pages 111-125, January.
    15. Kets, W., 2007. "The Minority Game : An Economics Perspective," Other publications TiSEM 65d52a6a-b27d-45a9-93a7-e, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    16. Pietro Dindo & Jan Tuinstra, 2011. "A Class of Evolutionary Models for Participation Games with Negative Feedback," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 37(3), pages 267-300, March.
    17. Matzke, Christina & Challet, Damien, 2008. "Taking a shower in Youth Hostels: risks and delights of heterogeneity," Bonn Econ Discussion Papers 1/2008, University of Bonn, Bonn Graduate School of Economics (BGSE).
    18. Marsili, Matteo & Challet, Damien & Zecchina, Riccardo, 2000. "Exact solution of a modified El Farol's bar problem: Efficiency and the role of market impact," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 280(3), pages 522-553.
    19. Mansilla, R, 2000. "From naive to sophisticated behavior in multiagents-based financial market models," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 284(1), pages 478-488.
    20. Benjamin Patrick Evans & Mikhail Prokopenko, 2022. "Bounded strategic reasoning explains crisis emergence in multi-agent market games," Papers 2206.05568, arXiv.org.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    El Farol Bar problem; Social Preferences; Social Networks; Self-Organization; Emergence of Coordination.;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:trn:utwpas:1120. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: assru.tm@gmail.com (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/detreit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.