Developments in experimental and agent-based computational economics (ACE): overview

WEHIA 2005, the 10th anniversary of the pre-eminent agent-based computational economics (ACE) conference held at the University of Essex, marks a hide tide of theACEmethodology and of experimental economics. This Special Issue contains seven papers selected for their innovative quality, and for clarity and rigour in their presentation. Till recently, analytical and econometric modelling tools were the main arbiters of the veracity or plausibility of assumptions and hypotheses in economics. Theoretical models typically supply internal consistency within prescribed conditions and assumptions, many of which were often made for analytical tractability. There was limited scope for encapsulating a reality that extends beyond such simplifying assumptions. Agent-based models and human subject experiments are now increasingly used to get to the parts that cannot be probed by the more deductive modes of reasoning and knowledge. Within an artificial environment of a computer or in parallel computation, multi-agent modelling can simulate behaviour of economic actors in many economic and market environments. The agents themselves are computer programs that can display varying degrees of computational intelligence from fixed rules to fully fledged capacity