Eurace@unibi
The Eurace@Unibi Model
The Eurace@Unibi model provides a representation of a closed macroeconomic model with a spatial structure. The main objective is to provide a micro-founded macroeconomic model that can be used as a unifi ed framework for policy analysis in different economic policy areas and for the examination of generic macroeconomic research questions. In spite of this general agenda the model has been constructed with certain specific research questions in mind and therefore certain parts of the model, e.g. the mechanisms driving technological change, have been worked out in more detail than others.
The Eurace@Unibi model presented here is based on the agent-based macroeconomic simulation platform developed within the EURACE project. After the completion of the EURACE project in Nov. 2009 a group consisting of Herbert Dawid, Simon Gemkow, Philipp Harting, Michael Neugart and Sander van der Hoog has extended and altered the model substantially in numerous directions leading to the current version of the model.
The model can be executed in the ETACE Virtual Appliance.
Source code of the Eurace@Unibi Model can be downloaded here.
Click here for a list of research papers using the Eurace@Unibi model (and also some previous versions of the Eurace model)
An extensive user manual for the Eurace@Unibi model including detailed descriptions of the source code:
Dawid, H, S Gemkow, P Harting, S van der Hoog, and M Neugart (2011). Eurace@Unibi Model v1.0 User Manual. Working Paper Bielefeld University.
PDF
A documentation of the current status of the Eurace@Unibi model, including a discussion of the underlying modeling philosophy and a presentation of some typical model dynamics:
Dawid, Harting, van der Hoog & Neugart (2016): "A Heterogeneous Agent Macroeconomic Model for Policy Evaluation: Improving Transparency and Reproducibility" (Full model description -- Updated version of Dawid et al. 2012)
PDF
An overview of policy analyses with the model so far:
Dawid, H, S Gemkow, P Harting, S van der Hoog and M Neugart (forthcoming), Agent-Based Macroeconomic Modeling and Policy Analysis: The Eurace@Unibi Model.. Submitted for publication in Chen, S-H. and Kaboudan, M. (Eds.), Handbook on Computational Economics and Finance, Oxford University Press.
PDF
Ongoing Research Using the Eurace@Unibi Model
The Eurace@Unibi model is used for several economic policy studies:
- The effects of different kinds of innovation policies in economies with heterogeneous regions and spatial factor flows.
- The effects of stabilization policies on technological change and economic growth.
- The effects of technological change on the transformation of skill heterogeneity into wage inequality (SFB 882 project description).
- The effects of Basel II/III banking regulation on the financial fragility of the macroeconomic system.
Online illustration of simulation results
FLAME Simulation Framework
The Eurace and Eurace@Unibi models are implemented in the simulation framework FLAME.
FLAME (Flexible Large-scale Agent Modelling Environment) is a generic agent-based modelling system. It is a program generator which can be used to develop agent-based applications that can be compiled and built on the majority of computing systems ranging from laptops to high-performance super computers and grid systems, and works under Linux, MacOS or Windows.
FLAME programs can be compiled as serial code (single CPU use) or parallel code (for multi-node systems such as grids), and links in the message board library Libmboard to provide MPI (Message Passing Interface) facilities.
Flexible Large-scale Agent Visualization Library
The Flexible Large-scale Agent Visualization Library (FLAViz) is a data analysis and visualization library developed for multi-agent / agent-based simulations generated using the FLAME framework.
Agent-based simulation models typically generate data that spans multiple dimensions, e.g. parameter sets, Monte Carlo replication runs, different agent types, multiple agent instances per type, many variables per agent, and time periods (iterations).
To deal with such a large heterogeneity in the data dimensions, the data has to be stored as organized data sets, to allow for proper data aggregation, data filtering, selection, slicing etc. The software package FLAViz can be used to filter, transform, and visualize time series data that has been stored using multiple hierarchical levels in the HDF5 file format. Various kinds of plots can be specified, e.g., time series, box plots, scatter plots, histograms, and delay plots.
Download: FLAViz GitHub Repository
Documents FLAME
Papers on FLAME
Mike Holcombe, Simon Coakley, Rod Smallwood, 2006. A General Framework for agent-based modelling of complex systems, Proceedings of the 2006 European Conference on Complex Systems. PDF
Simon Coakley, Rod Smallwood and Mike Holcombe, 2006. Using X-Machines as a formal basis for describing agents in agent-based modelling, Proceedings of the 2006 Agent-Directed Simulation Conference. PDF
Simon Coakley, Marian Gheorghe, Mike Holcombe, Shawn Chin, David Worth, Chris Greenough, 2012. Exploitation of High Performance Computing in the FLAME Agent-Based Simulation Framework, Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on High Performance Computing and Communications PDF
For more information and downloads:
FLAME Website University Sheffield
CCPForge site for FLAME
Research Papers using the Eurace@Unibi Model
EURACE
A Software Suite for Large-scale Agent-based Computational Economic Modelling
by Gregor Böhl, Sander van der Hoog, Philipp Harting, Simon Gemkow and Herbert Dawid
Download Installation Guide User Manual
HOWTO Use Shared Folders HOWTO Use Graphviz in SliTaz
Virtual Appliance
Overview
The ETACE Virtual Appliance is a stand-alone Linux-based simulation platform that provides a full suite of programmes for (large-scale) agent-based modelling and simulation. It builds on the core Flexible Large-scale Agent Modelling Environment (FLAME), adding programs such as Graphical User Interfaces, an editor for agent-based model design and an integrated solution for data visualisation using R.
Aims
The idea behind the software package is to make every step related to the initialization, simulation and analysis of the Eurace@Unibi model as easy as possible. The following versions of the model are included:
- Dawid, Harting, van der Hoog & Neugart (2016): "A Heterogeneous Agent Macroeconomic Model for Policy Evaluation: Improving Transparency and Reproducibility" (Full model description -- Updated version of Dawid et al. 2012)
- Dawid, Gemkow, Harting, van der Hoog & Neugart (2012): Eurace@Unibi Model v1.0 (full source code available)
- Dawid, Harting & Neugart (2013): Spatial labor market frictions (code for replication of results)
- Dawid, Gemkow (2013): Social networks (code for replication of results)
- Dawid, Harting & Neugart (2013): Cohesion Policy (code for replication of results)
Purpose
The programme suite allows Academics, Practitioners, Regulators, and the general public to create, edit, and simulate models that have been developped using the Flame agent-based modelling environment, such as the Eurace@Unibi model.
The virtual appliance serves multiple purposes: (i) to ensure the reproducibility of results, (ii) as a form of model documentation and communication, (iii) it heightens the credibility of the model.
For Questions and Support
We regret that we do not have the capacity to support you in any way, shape, or form. The Virtual Appliance is provided as is, without any warranty that it will work. We do however appreciate any remarks, comments, or suggestions for improvement, or other hints that you may have, and would appreciate any and all feedback on the following email address: etace@wiwi.uni-bielefeld.de