Comparative analysis of agent-based and population-based modelling in epidemics and economics

This paper addresses comparative evaluation of population-based simulation in comparison to agent-based simulation for different numbers of agents. Population-based simulation, such as for example in the classical approaches to predator-prey modelling and modelling of epidemics, has computational advantages over agent-based modelling with large numbers of agents. Therefore the latter approaches can be considered useful only when the results are expected to deviate from the results of population-based simulation, and are considered more realistic. However, there is sometimes also a silent assumption that for larger numbers of agents, agent-based simulations approximate population-based simulations, which would indicate that agent-based simulation just can be replaced by population-based simulation. The paper evaluates such assumptions by two detailed comparative case studies: one in epidemics, and one in economical context. The former case study addresses the spread of an infectious disease over a population. The latter case study addresses the interplay between individual greed as a psychological concept and global economical concepts. It is shown that under certain conditions agent-based and population-based simulations may show similar results, but not always.