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Agent-based Modeling and Institutional Design

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Abstract

The recent economic crisis has led to calls for a comprehensive restructuring of energy, financial, health care, and educational systems. Critics worry that the restructuring of these complex institutional arrangements could produce adverse unintended consequences. Given these concerns, pre-testing of proposed changes is eminently desirable but also exceedingly difficult. This essay focuses on the potential use of agent-based modeling for studying proposed changes in institutional arrangements in advance of actual implementation. Ongoing agent-based research on the restructuring of electric power markets is used for concrete illustration.

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References

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Acknowledgements

This work has been supported in part by grants from the Department of Energy at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the ISU Electric Power Research Center.

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  1. Department of Economics, Mathematics, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, 50011-1070, IA, USA

    Leigh Tesfatsion

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  1. Leigh Tesfatsion
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Tesfatsion, L. Agent-based Modeling and Institutional Design. Eastern Econ J 37, 13–19 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/eej.2010.34

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/eej.2010.34

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