The complexity of the intangible digital economy: an agent-based model

Filippo Bertani, Linda Ponta, Marco Raberto, Andrea Teglio and Silvano Cincotti

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: During the last decades, we have witnessed a strong development of intangible digital technologies. Software, artificial intelligence and algorithms are increasingly affecting both production systems and our lives; economists have started to figure out the long-run complex economic implications of this new technological wave. In this paper, we address this question through the agent-based modelling approach. In particular, we enrich the macroeconomic model Eurace with the concept of intangible digital technology and investigate its effects both at the micro and macro level. Results show the emergence of the relevant stylized facts observed in the business domain, such as increasing returns, winner-take-most phenomena and market lock-in. At the macro level, our main finding is an increasing unemployment level, since the sizeable decrease of the employment rate in the mass-production system, provided by the higher productivity of digital assets, is usually not counterbalanced by the new jobs created in the digital sector.

Keywords: Intangible assets; Digital transformation; Technological unemployment; Agent-based economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C63 D24 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-11-21
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-big, nep-cmp, nep-hme, nep-knm, nep-ore, nep-pay and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The complexity of the intangible digital economy: an agent-based model (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:97071

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