- Agent-based computational economics (ACE) is the computational study of economic processes modeled as dynamic systems of interacting agents. Here “agent” refers broadly to a bundle of data and behavioral methods representing an entity constituting part of a computationally constructed world.
Examples of possible agents include individuals (e.g., consumers, producers), social groupings (e.g., families, firms, communities, government agencies), institutions (e.g., markets, regulatory systems), biological entities (e.g., crops, livestock, forests), and physical entities (e.g., infrastructure, weather, and geographical regions). Thus, agents can range from active data-gathering decision makers with sophisticated learning capabilities to passive world features with no cognitive function. Moreover, agents can be composed of other agents, permitting hierarchical constructions.