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A Multi-Agent Systems Approach to Microeconomic Foundations of Macro

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  • Bill Gibson

    (University of Massachusetts Amherst)

Abstract

This paper is part of a broader project that attempts to gener- ate microfoundations for macroeconomics as an emergent property of complex systems. The multi-agents systems approach is seen to produce realistic macro properties from a primitive set of agents that search for satisfactory activities, "jobs", in an informationally constrained, computationally noisy environment. There is frictional and structural unemployment, inflation, excess capacity, fi- nancial instability along with the possibility of relatively smooth expansion. There is no Phillips curve but an inegalitarian distribution of income emerges as fundamental property of the system.

Suggested Citation

  • Bill Gibson, 2007. "A Multi-Agent Systems Approach to Microeconomic Foundations of Macro," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2007-10, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ums:papers:2007-10
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    File URL: http://www.umass.edu/economics/publications/2007-10.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Axtell, R. & Epstein, J.M. & Young, H.P., 2000. "The Emergence of Classes in a Multi-Agent Bargaining Model," Papers 9, Brookings Institution - Working Papers.
    3. David Colander, 2018. "Post Walrasian Macro Policy and the Economics of Muddling Through," Chapters, in: How Economics Should Be Done, chapter 11, pages 144-162, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Bill Gibson, 2003. "Thinking Outside the Walrasian Box," International Journal of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(2), pages 36-46.
    5. Robert E. Lucas & Thomas J. Sargent, 1979. "After Keynesian macroeconomics," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 3(Spr).
    6. Brock,W.A. & Durlauf,S.N., 2005. "Social interactions and macroeconomics," Working papers 5, Wisconsin Madison - Social Systems.
    7. Henrich, Joseph & Boyd, Robert & Bowles, Samuel & Camerer, Colin & Fehr, Ernst & Gintis, Herbert (ed.), 2004. "Foundations of Human Sociality: Economic Experiments and Ethnographic Evidence from Fifteen Small-Scale Societies," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199262052.
    8. Schelling, Thomas C, 1969. "Models of Segregation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(2), pages 488-493, May.
    9. Debreu, Gerard, 1974. "Excess demand functions," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 15-21, March.
    10. Rizvi, S Abu Turab, 1994. "The Microfoundations Project in General Equilibrium Theory," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 18(4), pages 357-377, August.
    11. Guth, Werner & Schmittberger, Rolf & Schwarze, Bernd, 1982. "An experimental analysis of ultimatum bargaining," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 367-388, December.
    12. Robert Axtell, 1999. "The Emergence of Firms in a Population of Agents," Working Papers 99-03-019, Santa Fe Institute.
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Bill Gibson, 2008. "Keynesian And Neoclassical Closures In An Agent-Based Context," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2008-03, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    2. Bell, William Paul, 2009. "Adaptive interactive expectations: dynamically modelling profit expectations," MPRA Paper 38260, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 09 Feb 2010.
    3. Bill Gibson, 2010. "The Structuralist Growth Model," Chapters, in: Mark Setterfield (ed.), Handbook of Alternative Theories of Economic Growth, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Bill Gibson, 2012. "Trade, Employment and the Informal Sector: An Agent-based Analysis," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 6(2), pages 277-310, May.
    5. 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.
    6. Bill Gibson, 2008. "The Current Macroeconomic Crisis," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2008-02, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    7. Andrew G. Haldane & Arthur E. Turrell, 2019. "Drawing on different disciplines: macroeconomic agent-based models," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 39-66, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Multi-agent system; agent-based models; microeconomic foundations; macroeconomics.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D58 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Computable and Other Applied General Equilibrium Models
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • D30 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - General

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