Agent-based modelling of novelty creating behavior and sectoral growth effects-Linking the creative and the destructive side of innovation

Authored by Frank Beckenbach, Maria Daskalakis, David Hofmann

Date Published: 2012-07

DOI: 10.1007/s00191-011-0256-y

Sponsors: Volkswagen Foundation

Platforms: No platforms listed

Model Documentation: Pseudocode Other Narrative Flow charts Mathematical description

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

For grasping the relationship between novelty creating activities of agents and growth of economic aggregates, a multi-level approach is suggested. The first level specifies the triggering conditions for novelty creating activities for the agents, i.e. firms. Here the behavioral elements and the modes of actions for the firms are portrayed using an agent-based approach (Section 2). On the second level, the consequences of successful innovations and imitations in a given sector of economic activities are dealt with (Section 3). This depends on the frequency of successful novelties and on the way they diffuse in that sector. We use an agent-related functional approach, applying difference equations for depicting the stylized facts of the diffusion dynamics. Only if these different levels of economic dynamics are distinguished as well as related to each other, is it possible to derive aggregate effects of novelties for the whole economy. This will be done by way of computer simulations (Section 4). Conclusions are drawn in Section 5.
Tags
Innovation Behavioral economics Evolutionary economics Growth theory Multi-agent-system knowledge