Varieties of Agents in Agent-Based Computational Economics: A Historical and an Interdisciplinary Perspective

Abstract

In this paper, we trace four origins of agent-based computational economics (ACE), namely, the markets origin, the cellular-automata origin, the tournaments origin, and the experiments origin. Along with this trace, we examine how these origins have motivated different concepts and designs of agents in ACE, which starts from the early work on simple programmed agents, randomly behaving agents, zero-intelligence agents, human-written programmed agents, autonomous agents, and empirically calibrated agents, and extends to the newly developing cognitive agents, psychological agents, and culturally sensitive agents. The review also shows that the intellectual ideas underlying these varieties of agents cross several disciplines, which may be considered as a part of a general attempt to study humans (and their behavior) with an integrated interdisciplinary foundation.