Why Bother with What Others Tell You? An Experimental Data-Driven Agent-Based Model

Authored by Riccardo Boero, Marco Castellani, Flaminio Squazzoni, Giangiacomo Bravo

Date Published: 2010-06

Sponsors: Italian government

Platforms: Java

Model Documentation: Other Narrative Pseudocode

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

This paper investigates the relevance of reputation to improve the explorative capabilities of agents in uncertain environments. We have presented a laboratory experiment where sixty-four subjects were asked to take iterated economic investment decisions. An agent-based model based on their behavioural patterns replicated the experiment exactly. Exploring this experimentally grounded model, we studied the effects of various reputational mechanisms on explorative capabilities at a systemic level. The results showed that reputation mechanisms increase the agents' capability for coping with uncertain environments more than individualistic atomistic exploration strategies, although the former does entail a certain amount of false information inside the system.

Tags

Agent-based model Reputation Exploration Vs. Exploitation Laboratory Experiment Trustworthiness