Agent-Based Models of Social Interaction and the Emergence of Multi-Agent Institutions

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This award supports the use of agent-based models to study the emergence of multi-agent institutions in society and to test these models against data. The computational approach taken here departs from perfectly rational models in favor of boundedly rational models and non-equilibrium dynamics. The models are inherently concerned with social interactions and the ways in which institutions (and social norms and conformity effects) emerge out of those interactions. Five models will be developed including: the Long House Valley Anasazi from 800 AD to their disappearance in 1300 AD; crime rates; retirement decision-making; the distribution of firm sizes; and institutions of governance. These models will advance scientific knowledge about multi-agent systems, simulation and anthropology as well as contribute to policy-making about criminal, retirement and organizational behaviors.