This paper explores how different credit market and banking regulations affect business fluctuations. Capital adequacy and reserve requirements are analysed for their effect on the risk of severe downturns. We develop an agent-based macroeconomic model in which financial contagion is transmitted...

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, with periphery countries in the European Union even more falling behind the core countries economically, there have been quests for various kind of fiscal policies in order to revert divergence. How these policies would unfold and perform comparatively...

This chapter surveys work dedicated to macroeconomic analysis using an agent-based modeling approach. After a short review of the origins and general characteristics of this approach a systemic comparison of the structure and modeling assumptions of a set of important (families of) agent-based...

This chapter discusses the potential of the agent-based computational economics approach for the analysis of processes of innovation and technological change. It is argued that, on the one hand, several genuine properties of innovation processes make the possibilities offered by agent-based...

Based on a closed agent-based macroeconomic simulation model (Eurace@Unibi) this paper analyzes whether the density of social networks influences via referrals the residual wage inequality in different skill groups. It is shown that an increase in network density leads to a polarization of firms...

Agent-based simulation models are a relatively new addition to the tool-box of macroeconomists. In this chapter we introduce the Eurace@Unibi model and the research that has been done within this framework. We show how an agent-based model can be used to identify economic mechanisms and how it...

In this paper we examine the role of the design of behavioral rules in agent-based macroeconomic modeling. Based on clear theoretical foundations, we develop a general representation of the behavioral rules governing price and quantity decisions of firms and show how rules used in four main...