764
What Micro-Foundations for Agent-Based Computational Models?
What Micro-Foundations for Agent-Based Computational Models?
Thursday, 19 July 2018: 15:30-17:20
Location: 712 (MTCC SOUTH BUILDING)
RC45 Rational Choice (host committee) Language: English
Over the last ten years or so, rational choice theorists (Raub et al. 2011) and analytical sociologists (Manzo 2014a; Hedström and Manzo 2015) have incorporated agent-based computational models in their toolbox for the study of macro-to-micro-to-macro relationships. This appropriation contributed to the idea that agent-based models are naturally tied to a specific action theory, namely rational choice theory (see Elster 2009). Some authors highlighted the erroneous character of this association (Manzo 2014). Agent-based modeling can indeed accommodate a great variety of micro-perspectives (Miller and Page 2007) ranging from simple heuristics (Todd et al. 2005; Manzo and Baldassarri 2015), heuristic-based game-theoretic strategies (Alexander 2007), sophisticated maximizing behaviors (Shoham and Leyton-Brown 2009), and complex cognitive reasoning (Wooldridge 2000) to argument-based decisions (Gabbriellini and Torroni 2014). The variety of action principles that are compatible with agent-based computational models is still under-appreciated. This session invites contributions demonstrating the great flexibility of this simulation method for the implementation of formal models based on various micro-level assumptions. Papers with a well-defined empirical target are especially welcome.
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Oral Presentations