Teaching Agent-Based Computational Economics to Graduate Students

Agent-based computational economics (ACE) is roughly defined as the computational study of economies modeled as evolving decentralized systems of autonomous interacting agents. A key focus of ACE research is understanding how global regularities arise from the bottom up, through the repeated local interactions of autonomous agents channeled through socio-economic institutions, rather than from top down coordination mechanisms such as imposed market clearing constraints or an assumption of single representative agents. This paper discusses how ACE materials have been introduced into graduate-level courses in macroeconomic theory over the past several years, using an ACE labor market framework for concrete illustration. Related work can be accessed here: http://www.econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/ace.htm