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Special Issue: Agent-based macroeconomics in era of global crises: innovative policy measures for an adaptive resilient economy

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We are entering the third decade of the XXIst century with profound uncertainties. Some ongoing processes are expected to progress in the years to come, constituting crucial challenges for the “economics” discipline. First, the climate change issue will need a relevant mobilization of resources to foster the ecological transition, with far-reaching consequences on our business and financial landscapes, still mostly addicted to fossil fuels. Second, the digital transformation could result in tremendous productivity gains but also in widespread unemployment crises. Third, the recent COVID emergency has emphasized the importance to carefully consider the impact of human activity on our ecosystems, which goes well beyond carbon emissions and could increase the likelihood of virus spillovers. Furthermore, the necessity to maintain economic activity alive during lockdown has surely accelerated the digitalization of most services and routine-based jobs. Finally, there remain relevant questions on a sustainable and inclusive growth able to face demographic changes and migration patterns with the aim to enhance the awareness on opportunities, risks and impacts of policy measures and regulations. The agent-based approach in economics is well equipped to tackle these topics, because of its capacity to integrate the “micro” and “macro” aspects by modelling the network of interactions among the economic agents (thus also offering access to the “meso” dimensions), and their aggregated outcomes. The objectives of the special issue are to collect and present state-of-the-art contributions in the field, which are able to provide both novel theoretical foundations and relevant policy advices to cope with the big issues outlined above. The rationale of this editorial initiative is that a modeling approach that is able to encompass (i) endogenous shocks, agents’ heterogeneity, (ii) non-market interactions, and (iii) out-of-equilibrium dynamics, is best suited to study complex evolutionary processes. These processes are characterized by feedback loops, such as the one between the economy and the environment, tipping points, such as the ones in climate change dynamics, the distributive impact of different climate and welfare policies, and the emergence of phenomena at the aggregate level, which are not obvious from micro behavior. Finally, the agent-based approach seems to be suitable to study the economic effects of epidemics, as contagion dynamics is, by its very nature, based on direct interactions within a network.

Editors

Articles (8 in this collection)