Introductions

[Alan Isaac]

Use this thread to introduce yourself to me and your classmates.  (I will provide more guidance on the first day of class.)

A little about me ... This summer, I will be teaching Growing Artificial Societies.  I have offered this course for the past few summers. I created this course, and I consider it to be exciting and quite different from any of your other economics courses.  It is a "hands on" course for the exploration and creation of artifical economies.

I have been interested in agent-based simulation for a bit less than a decade.  It is a relatively new approach to economic modeling, and as we will see in this course, it is very powerful.  I have been particularly interested in its applications to disease transmission, banking crises, and wealth distribution.  During this course, I will touch upon the first two of these and go a bit deeper into the last.

[Natalie Chambers]

Hello my name is Natalie Chambers and I just completed the first year of my Masters in the SIS International Economic Relations program. I received my bachelors from the University of Arizona and now work for Calibre, a defense contracting company in Virginia. 

I am very interested in emerging markets and why some economies flourish while others never do, even under similar conditions. I believe this class will provide an interesting modeling experience to explore ways that different factors influence economic growth which will enlighten the way I think about emerging market societies. 

[Matthew Reardon]

Hello All,

  I am now a third year Econ PhD student here at AU with a focus on International Economics.  I am currently working as a research assistant on a joint project between Washington & Lee University and the US ITC. 

My general interests focus on open economy integration (monetary unions, economic zones, etc) but my current work involves the impact from trade on firm productivity .  I think agent-based simulation can provide a useful tool for observing interactions not traditionally found in economic datasets. Aside from a learning as many different software/code packages as possible, I am interested in using agent-based simulation for modeling technology/productivity spillover effects.  

Matthew Reardon

[Greg Gonsalves]

Hi all,

My name is Greg Gonsalves and I am a Junior working on my B.S. in Economics.

I chose this class because I am extremely interested in learning more about both computer coding and techniques, and how the economy works. I feel agent-based modeling will give me insight into the world that I normally wouldn’t have.

[Kevin Carrig]

Hi Everyone,

I am a first year Masters student in the Economics program. I am currently a quantitative analyst in a government agency/department with a focus on machine learning and econometric applications in Python, R, and C++. 

My general interests include methods in game theory, industrial organization, and innovative econometric methods. I am taking this course to gain a better understanding of simulation and agent-based modeling as well as to inform my current job duties.I enjoy programming in Python and R and I hope this course will refine some of those skills as well as introduce a new skill set for future work.

Kevin Carrig

On Thursday, April 24, 2014 11:54:16 AM UTC-4, Alan Isaac wrote:

[Amanda Saville]

Hi Everyone,

Like Natalie, I have just finished my first year of graduate studies in International Economic Relations at SIS.  I am interested in international development, development finance, and emerging markets.  I registered for this class because I honestly know nothing about agent-based modeling (or coding more generally), and thought it would be a class were I could both develop and explore new skill sets while still focusing on my topics of interest.  After reading a little bit about the applications of agent-based modeling on the web, I'm excited to jump into the material despite being somewhat intimidated.

I'm very much looking forward to getting to know you all in this class, and I'm also hoping that if any of you are in the city we may actually get together at some point this summer to chat in person!

Amanda

[Alan Isaac]

I am pleased by the range of interests expressed in your introductions.  I also welcome Amanda's suggestion that those living locally might meet in DC to discuss agent-based economics, policy, and may even philosophy.  Obviously this would be "extra curriculuar", but it could add some fun to the DC summer.

This course will provide some background and tools that you can use to pursue your economics-related interests.  Feel free to choose a project that embodies your interests, but keep in mind that your first efforts to do agent-based modeling should be *limited* and *simple*.  Avoid the temptation to try to incorporate all the features you feel are important.  Pick one or two features to try to model, and then add more if you find you have time.

Note that some of you have experience coding, while others have none.  The course is designed to allow both groups to succeed.  I hope I will be providing challenges that every student will find challenging and interesting.  If challenge seems inadequate or insurmountable, but sure to share that experience, and we can work on making individual adjustments to the material.

Cheers,

Alan Isaac

PS For ideas relevant to emerging markets, take a look at

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/books.htm?chapterid=17036874 

Also a rather narrow application is described here:

http://equella.rcs.griffith.edu.au/research/file/0c2edd2b-dc26-4bd5-ad9b-517303db33c3/1/2012-05-financial-literacy-learning-in-emerging-markets-agent-based-modeling.pdf

For an application to international trade, take a look at

http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/16/2/1.html 

[Adaora Isichei]

Hello, my name is Adaora Isichei I am a second year Masters student in the general Economics program. I have a bachelors degree from University of Michigan in Psychology.

I am very interested in decision making especially in relations to investment, crisis management and socioeconomic issue. I am excited to be taking this class because it provides me with oppurtunity to learn programing. I believe technology has a huge impact on our economic and social advancement,  thus it is important to have a basic understanding of coding. 

[Mia Raths]

Hi everyone,

My name is Mia.  I am working on my Masters degree in Econ after graduating from AU last Spring with a double major of Political Science and CLEG.  The reason I wanted to pursue a degree in economics was mainly because I really really enjoy working with game theory.  I have witnessed NetLogo in a political science class (where we also used game theory) and thought it was very interesting.  I am hoping to learn how to use it on my own.  In that class we also read a book on ABS and it increased my interest in economics as a whole.

I am currently employed with AU Housing & Dining Programs so I am always on campus and would love to meet up with everyone else taking this course who is also in DC. If anyone has a pool, let me know!!!

On Thursday, April 24, 2014 11:54:16 AM UTC-4, Alan Isaac wrote:

[Sebastien Lundby-Thomas]

Hello my name is Sebastien Lundby-Thomas, I am currently working part-time at Merrill Lynch and this is my final credit for my undergraduate degree. 

In previous courses I became interested in modeling after researching the Icelandic economic crisis and reading books such as "Liar's Poker" and "Boomerang" which look at the global economy in terms of culture and the causes behind some particular economic crises. Working with Financial advisor's has furthered my interest in trying to get a broader picture of the market in order to make more informed decisions as to how to invest for clients in a way that reflects their financial goals and needs. Understanding things on a macro level and how different systems are connected (law, politics, and the economy) has always been interesting to me.

[Alan Isaac]

Hi Sebastien,

See if http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-642-31301-1_3#page-1 has any useful ideas for you. (I believe you can download this if you first establish a VPN connection using https://vpn.american.edu.)  Modeling banks is a bit tricky, but as long as you radically simplify, it could be a good term project.

Cheers,
Alan Isaac

[Adin Dobkin]

Hi all,

I'm a Junior studying for a B.S. in Economics.  I first became interested in economics after spending a couple summers in the capital during the Great Recession where I worked on examining foreign countries and comparing their systems to ours essentially right around when the banks were bailed out.  For me, economics has always been an interesting topic, although I'm not quite sure of my career path at this current point.

Currently, I run government and media affairs for a national security think tank.  Hopefully with enough of a solid foundation, I can dovetail the two subjects.

Cheers,

Adin Dobkin

On Thursday, April 24, 2014 11:54:16 AM UTC-4, Alan Isaac wrote:

[Sebastien Lundby-Thomas]

Oh thank you this should be very interesting I will be sure to dig into it.

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