The 1st BESLAB Computational and Experimental Economics Summer School

Graduate students and young faculty interested in computational and experimental economics are invited to attend this intensive 7-day summer school (which will include the two-day Workshop on Computational and Experimental Economics on June 13-14, 2022).

The summer school will be held from June 12 to June 19 at Beslab of Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain. The summer school includes the two-day Workshop on Computational and Experimental Economics on June 13-14, 2022.

• Goal: The goal of the summer school is to develop a foundation for using computational models and simulations to complement and/or explain results from human subject experiments. In particular, throughout the curriculum, students will learn how to implement a variety of agent-based models that have been successful in capturing regularities observed in the experimental and field data. In addition, the summer shool will include a two-day workshop on computational and experimental economics which will include presentations by the leading researchers who are interested in experimental and computational economics.
• Schedule Outline: The summer school coursework will begin with an overview of the literature at the intersection of experimental/behavioral economics and computational economics (as highlighted for example by The Handbook of Computational Economics, Heterogenous Agents, edited by Cars Hommes, Blake LeBaron, Volume 4, 2018) and continue with specific implementations of recent models including reinforcement learning, evolutionary learning, and belief learning. In addition, students will compare the performance of the agent-based approach to computational approaches that do not relaxes the assumptions of perfect rationality and information (e.g., dynamic programming).

The summer school consists of 5 days of instruction with a typical day including:

• Two 90-minute lecture by the faculty
• 90 minutes programming lecture
• 90-minute hands-on group sessions in which students work to implement the computational model or participate in the experiment

The last day will include student-groups presenting proposals for a project and getting comments from the faculty. A tentative schedule is provided below.

• Preparation: In order to ensure productive interaction during the summer school, all students will be required to complete a Python tutoriall and submit a set of exercises prior to arrival. In addition, because the summer school will include completion of a number of hand-on programming activities, students are encouraged to bring their own laptop computers with the necessary software installed.

In addition to the tutorial, students will be provided with a set of example programs that will be discussed during the lectures. The expectation is that students will study and execute these programs prior to arrival.

An example of programming exercise during the summer school.

The deadline for applications is April 15, 2022.

Organizers

• Herbert Dawid (Bielefeld University)
• John Ledyard (Caltech)
• Rosemarie Nagel (ICREA-UPF, and BSE)
• Yaroslav Rosokha  (Purdue University)

Guest lecturer

• John Duffy (University of Californina, Irvine)

The 1st BESLAB Computational and Experimental Economics Summer School

Program is available in the following LINK.

The 1st BESLAB Computational and Experimental Economics Summer School

​​Herbert Dawid 

Herbert Dawid is professor for Economic Theory and Computational Economics at Bielefeld University and currently president of the Society for Computational Economics. He earned his doctoral degree at the Vienna University of Technology (1995). His research mainly focuses on economic dynamics, in particular industrial dynamics and economics of innovation, agent-based computational economics, and dynamic policy analysis.

Selected publications:

Dawid H. and G. Muehlheusser (2022), "Smart Products: Liability, Timing of Market Introduction, and Investments in Product Safety, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 134, 104288.

Dawid H, Harting P, van der Hoog S, Neugart M (2019), "Macroeconomics with heterogeneous agent models. Fostering transparency, reproducibility and replication", Journal of Evolutionary Economics 29(1): 467-538.

Dawid, H. and D. Delli Gatti (2018), "Agent-based Macroeconomics", in C. Hommes and B. LeBaron (Eds.) "Handbook of Computational Economics Vol. 4: Heterogeneous Agent Modeling", North-Holland, pp. 63-156.

Dawid, H., Harting, P. and M. Neugart (2018), "Cohesion Policy and Inequality Dynamics: Insights from a Heterogeneous Agents Macroeconomic Model", Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 150, 220-255.

Dawid, H. and MacLeod, W.B. (2008), "Hold-up and the Evolution of Investment and Bargaining Norms", Games and Economic Behavior, 62, 26-52. 

John Duffy

John Duffy is Professor of Economics at the University of California, Irvine. Duffy’s research explores issues in macroeconomics and finance using models and laboratory experiments.

Selected publications:

"An Experimental Study of Bond Market Pricing" with Matthias Weber and Arthur Schram, Journal of Finance, 73, 2018, 1857-1892.

"Heterogeneous Agent Modeling: Experimental Evidence" with Jasmina Arifovic, in: C. Hommes and B. LeBaron (Eds.), Handbook of Computational Economics Volume 4, Amsterdam: North-Holland, 2018, pp. 491-540.

"Macroeconomics: A Survey of Laboratory Research" in J.H. Kagel and A.E. Roth (Eds.), The Handbook of Experimental Economics Vol. 2, Princeton University Press, 2016, pp. 1-90.

"Gift Exchange versus Monetary Exchange: Theory and Evidence" with Daniela Puzzello, American Economic Review 104, 2014, 1735-1776.

Rosemarie Nagel

Rosemarie Nagel is an ICREA research professor at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF-BSE), research director of the experimental laboratory (LEEX-UPF), and member of CESifo. She earned her Ph.D. in the European Doctoral Program at the University of Bonn (1994). Her research interest is on experimental economics, behavioral economics, and neuroeconomics.

Selected publications:

Mauersberger, F. and Nagel, R. (2018). Levels of Reasoning in Keynesian Beauty Contests: A Generative Framework in the Handbook of Computational Economics, Volume 4, Heterogeneous Agents. Editors: Cars Hommes and Blake LeBaron. Amsterdam: North-Holland.

Bosch, A., J. G. Montalvo, R. Nagel, A. Satorra (2010). Finite Mixture Analysis of Beauty-Contest Data from Multiple Samples, Experimental Economics vol. 13(4): 461-475.

"Neural correlates of depth of strategic reasoning in medial prefrontal cortex" (with Giorgio Coricelli), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS): Economic Sciences, PNAS June 9, 2009 vol. 106 no. 23 9163-9168

"One, Two, (Three), Infinity...: Newspaper and Lab Beauty-Contest Experiments", (with Antoni Bosch-Domènech, Jose García-Montalvo, and Albert Satorra), American Economic Review December 92 (5), 2002, pp 1687-1701.

John O. Ledyard

John O. Ledyard is the Emeritus Professor of Economics in the Division of the Humanities and Social at the California Institute of Technology. His primary research is on the theoretical foundations and applications of mechanism design.  Most recently he is working on connecting experimental findings for repeated games with learning models.

Selected Publications:

“A Behavioral Model for Mechanism Design: Individual Evolutionary Learning” with Jasmina Arifovic, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Volume 78, Issue 3, May 2011, Pages 374-395.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2011.01.021

“Individual Evolutionary Learning, Other-regarding Preferences, and the Voluntary Contributions Mechanism” with Jasmina Arifovic, Journal of Public Economics, 96, 2012, 808–823.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2012.05.013 

“ACE: A Combinatorial Market Mechanism” with Leslie Fine, Jacob K. Goeree, and Takashi Ishikida, in Handbook of Spectrum Auction Design, eds. Martin Bichler and Jacob Goeree, 2017

"Learning to Alternate", with Jasmina Arifovic, Experimental Economics, 21(3), 692-721, 2018.

“Individual Evolutionary Learning and Zero-Intelligence in the Continuous Double Auction”, with Jasmina Arifovic, Anil Donmez, and Megan Tjandrasuwita, to appear in Handbook of Experimental Finance.

Yaroslav Rosokha

Yaroslav Rosokha is an Associate Professor of Economics and a member of the Vernon Smith Experimental Economics Laboratory at the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University. His recent work considers behavioral and environmental factors that influence cooperation in social dilemmas. In his research, Dr. Rosokha relies on the methodology of experimental economics in combination with computational modeling and game theory.

Selected Publications:

Rosokha and Younge (2020). "Motivating Innovation: The Effect of Loss Aversion on the Willingness to Persist", Review of Economics and Statistics, 102(3), pp. 569-582

Romero and Rosokha (2019). "The Evolution of Cooperation: The Role of Costly Strategy Adjustments" American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 11(1), pp. 299-328

Romero and Rosokha (2018) "Constructing Strategies in the Indefinitely Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma" European Economic Review, 104, pp. 185-219.

The 1st BESLAB Computational and Experimental Economics Summer School

Herbert Dawid

Introduction to Agent-based Modelling

This lecture gives a general motivation and introduction to agent-based modeling in Economics. It briefly discusses the methodological and conceptual foundations of this approach, key aspects of designing and analyzing agent-based economic models and illustrates the approach with well-known examples from the literature.

Literature:

Dawid, H. (2015), “Modeling the Economy as a Complex System”, in B. Alves Furtado, P.A.M. Sakowski, M.H. Tovolli (Eds.), "Modeling Complex Systems for Public Policies", IPEA, Brasilia, pp. 191-216.

Delli Gatti,D., Fagiolo, G., Gallegati, M., Richiardi, M. and Russo A. (Eds.) (2018), Agent-Based Models in Economics: A Toolkit. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.

Farmer, D. J., and Foley, D. (2009). “The Economy needs Agent-based Modelling”, Nature 460, 685-686.

Miller, J.H. and S. E. Page (2007), Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life, Princeton University Press.

Nelson, R. and Winter, S.G. (1982), An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.

Schelling, T. (1969), “Models of Segregation”, American Economic Review, 59, 488-493.

Wilensky, U. and W. Rand (2015), “An Introduction to Agent-Based Modelling: Modelling Natural Social, and Engineered Complex Systems with NetLogo”, MIT Press.

Agent-based Macroeconomics

This lecture provides an overview over well established agent-based macroeconomic models with particular focus on the foundations of the behavioral rules incorporated in these models. Also issues of empirical grounding and calibration of these models is briefly discussed.

Literature:

Main Text

Dawid, H. and Delli Gatti, D. (2018), “Agent-based Macroeconomics, in Hommes C, LeBaron B (Eds.): Handbook of Computational Economics, Vol. 4 - Heterogeneous Agent Models, Amsterdam: Elsevier, p. 63-156.

Background:

Assenza, T., Delli Gatti, D. & Grazzini, J. (2015), `Emergent dynamics of a  macroeconomic agent based model with capital and credit', Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 5-28.

Dawid, H. and P. Harting (2011): “Capturing Firm Behavior in Agent-Based Models of Industry Evolution and Macroeconomic Dynamics," in Applied Evolutionary Economics, Behavior and Organizations, ed. by G. Buenstorf, Edward-Elgar, 103-130.

Dawid, H., Harting, P., van der Hoog, S. & Neugart, M. (2019), A heterogeneous agent macroeconomic model for policy evaluation: Improving transparency and reproducibility, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 29, 467-538.

Delli Gatti, D., Gaffeo, E., Gallegati, M., Giulioni, G., Palestrini, A. (2008). Emergent Macroeconomics: An Agent-Based Approach to Business Fluctuations. Springer: Berlin.

Delli Gatti D. and J. Grazzini (2020), “Rising to the Challenge: Bayesian Estimation and Forecasting Techniques for Macroeconomic Agent-Based Models“, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 178, 875-902.

Dosi, G., Fagiolo, G. & Roventini, A. (2010), `Schumpeter meeting Keynes: a policy-friendly model of endogenous growth and business cycles', Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 34, 1748-1767.

Sinitskaya, E. and L. Tesfatsion (2015): “Macroeconomies as constructively rational games," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 61, 152-182.

Rosemarie Nagel

Methodology

This lecture introduces the methods of experimental economics with especial attention to computational economics. We will discuss what is an economic experiment (field vs lab experiment), the different areas in experimental economics and behavioral economics, the link between experimental economics, theory and computational work, important design issues. All this will be discussed with the classical Keynesian Beauty Contest game. This introduction is meant to give a quick introduction to those who have never followed an experimental economic course. Prior to the course we will send the participants of the summer school some classical experiments which they can do online.

General literature :

Handbook of Experimental Economics, Vol1 (1996), Vol2 (2016), editors J. Kagel &A. Roth

Camerer, C. (2003), "Behavioral Game Theory," Princeton University Pre2016ss

Friedman, D. and Sunder, S. (1994), Experimental Methods. Cambridge Univ. Press: Chapters 1-2: 1-20..

Smith, V.L. (2002), "Method in Experiment: Rhetoric and Reality." Experimental Economics 5(2): 91-110.

Papers related to the Beauty Contest game

Mauersberger, F. and Nagel, R. (2018). Levels of Reasoning in Keynesian Beauty Contests: A Generative Framework in the Handbook of Computational Economics, Volume 4, Heterogeneous Agents. Editors: Cars Hommes and Blake LeBaron. Amsterdam: North-Holland.

Vincent P. Crawford, Miguel A. Costa-Gomes, and Nagore Iriberri (2012) "Structural Models of Nonequilibrium Strategic Thinking: Theory, Evidence, and Applications," Journal of Economic Literature, 51(1):5–62, 2013.

Antoni Bosch-Domènech , Jose García-Montalvo, Rosemarie Nagel, and Albert Satorra, "One, Two, (Three), Infinity...: Newspaper and Lab Beauty-Contest Experiments", American Economic Review December 92 (5), 2002, pp 1687-1701. 

The 1st BESLAB Computational and Experimental Economics Summer School

To participate in our Summer School, please do the following steps.

Application - Deadline: April 15, 2022

1. Send to [email protected] one attached file: File should be your Curriculum Vitae in a email with the following subject: COMP22_CV_firstname_last_name
2. Fill the following application form. You will see a confirmation message after submitting the form. Before, remember to send your curriculum to [email protected].
3. Letter of Recommendation:

Please ask the person who gives you the letter of recommendation to send it as an attached PDF document to the address [email protected], with the following subject: COMP22_LETTER_firstname_lastname

Please contact us at [email protected] for another way for sending us the letter, such as ordinary mail or fax, but we strongly encourage to use the e-mail and PDF option to speed up the process.

Registration

Students who have been accepted for the school will be informed by April 28 and have three options: 

1. Students who still plan to participate must register by May, 6th, 2022. Together with the registration, a registration fee of 200 Euros or 215 US-Dollar needs to be paid (see below). 
2. Students who need accommodation must make a reservation at the hostel to be announced in the acceptance letter until May, 6th, 2022.

Students who no longer plan to participate should inform us as soon as possible, in any case before May, 6th, 2022. 

Steps to proceed to the payment will be published soon.