Agent-based model to rural-urban migration analysis

Authored by JJ Silveira, AL Espindola, TJP Penna

Date Published: 2006-05-15

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2005.08.055

Sponsors: Brazilian Ministry of Education (CAPES) Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq)

Platforms: No platforms listed

Model Documentation: Other Narrative Mathematical description

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the rural-urban migration phenomenon as it is usually observed in economies which are in the early stages of industrialization. The analysis is conducted by means of a statistical mechanics approach which builds a computational agent-based model. Agents are placed on a lattice and the connections among them are described via an Ising-like model. Simulations on this computational model show some emergent properties that are common in developing economies, such as a transitional dynamics characterized by continuous growth of urban population, followed by the equalization of expected wages between rural and urban sectors (Harris-Todaro equilibrium condition), urban concentration and increasing of per capita income. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Tags
econophysics Computational Modeling Monte Carlo method Rural-urban migration