In agent-based computational economics, many different trading strategies have been proposed. Given the kinds of market that such trading strategies are employed in, it is clear that the performance of the strategies depends heavily on the behavior of other traders. However, most trading strategies are studied in homogeneous populations, and those tests that have been carried out on heterogeneo...

Question: How is the process of evolutionary branching influenced by demographic stochasticity? Mathematical methods: Adaptive dynamics of (i) a simple consumer-resource model and (ii) an analogous but individual-based model with finite population size. Key assumptions: Consumers have access to two habitats with dynamic resources. The fraction of time spent in each habitat is the evolving trait...

This century is marked by rapid urbanization. Some statistics predict that the world’s urban population will reach five billion by 2030 (United Nations 2007). This rapid urbanization not only has resulted in expanded land-use, but also has led to population increases in urban areas and development-related environmental impacts. Researchers, therefore, have begun to be concerned about the relati...

We present an abstraction of the genetic algorithm (GA), termed population-based incremental learning (PBIL), that explicitly maintains the statistics contained in a GA’s population, but which abstracts away the crossover operator and redefines the role of the population. This results in PBIL being simpler, both computationally and theoretically, than the GA. Empirical results reported elsewher...

In this paper we propose a probabilistic approach to synthesize an agent-based heterogeneous population interaction model to study the spatio-temporal dynamics of an air-born epidemic, such as influenza, in a metropolitan area. The methodology is generic in nature and can generate a baseline population for cities for which detailed population summary tables are not available. The joint probabil...

Roads affect animals in three adverse ways. They act as barriers to movement ('fence effect'), enhance mortality due to collisions with traffic, and decrease habitat size. We study the relative importance of the first two effects using a spatially explicit individual-based model of population dynamics. We discuss our results with respect to the suitability of fences along roads as a measure to ...

With the purpose of studying the influence of population dynamics and economic growth on energy consumption and carbon emissions, an endogenous economic growth model is proposed incorporating physical and human capital and using an Agent-Based Model. The model can test different development strategies by identifying the key factors existing at the agent level that may speed up or slow down a gi...

Simulation models are becoming increasingly popular in the analysis of important policy issues including global warming, population dynamics, energy systems, and urban planning. The usefulness of these models is predicated on their ability to link observable patterns of behavior of a system to micro-level structures. This paper argues that structural validity of a simulation model -right behavi...