Vers une macroéconomie fondée sur des agents autonomes et intelligents

Peter Howitt and Jean-Luc Gaffard

Revue de l'OFCE, 2007, vol. n° 102, issue 3, 55-78

Abstract: This paper discusses a research agenda that has been advocated by Axel Leijonhufvud for studying the coordination process of a decentralized market economy. The research used agent-based modeling, an approach that assumes exogenous rules for adaptive behavior, thereby endowing agents with an autonomy that is impossible in a rational-expectations-equilibrium approach. The paper argues that this approach also endows people with more intelligence than would a standard optimizing approach. The analysis focuses on the role of business firms as coordinating agents who organize trading activities. Computer simulations show that a network of specialist trading enterprises can emerge from autarky when people follow simple myopic rules. The interactions between trading enterprises and households results in a multiplier process which can be shown to mimic time-series behavior of detrended real GDP in the United States. The analysis can also be used to illustrate the possibly destabilizing effects of excessive wage/price flexibility. JEL Classification: B4, D50, D58, D83.

Keywords: macroeconomy; agent behavior; information; autonomy; adaptation; coordination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B4 D50 D58 D83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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