Applications of Agent-Based Modeling The Brookings Institution Economic Studies Program The Brookings Institution 1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW Washington, DC 20036 http://www.brookings.edu/scholars/jepstein.htm Abstract: Agent-based modeling and simulation have become central to complex adaptive systems research. These tools, initially used for artificial life simulation, have been adapted to research in economics and now more extensively throughout the social sciences. Formerly the domain of computer science, agent-based models are also being employed to address a wide range of complex problems in government and industry. In this lecture, Dr. Epstein will discuss the notion of a generative explanation in the social sciences and the central role of agent-based computational modeling in generative social science. He will present diverse applications drawn from such fields as epidemiology, civil violence, and archaeology. Bio: Joshua M. Epstein is a Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, a member of the Brookings-Johns Hopkins Joint Center on Social and Economic Dynamics, and a member of the External Faculty of the Santa Fe Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from MIT and is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences. He is also a member of the Editorial Boards of the journal Complexity, and of the Princeton University Press Studies in Complexity book series. His primary research interest is in the modeling of complex social, economic, and biological systems using agent-based computational models and nonlinear dynamical systems. He has taught computational and mathematical modeling at Princeton and the Santa Fe Institute Summer School. He has published widely in the modeling area, including recent articles on the dynamics of civil violence, the demography of the Anasazi (both in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ) and the epidemiology of smallpox (in the American Journal of Epidemiology ). His two recent books are: Growing Artificial Societies: Social Science from the Bottom Up , with-co-author Robert Axtell, (MIT Press, 1996); and Nonlinear Dynamics, Mathematical Biology, and Social Science (Addison-Wesley / Santa Fe Institute, 1997). His book, Generative Social Science: Studies in Agent-Based Computational Modeling, is forthcoming from Princeton University Press. |