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105 points jfantl | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.217s | source
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dlojudice ◴[] No.43552972[source]
Agent-based modeling offers a more realistic approach to economic systems than traditional equilibrium models. New approachs including generative agents (ABM+LLMs) are promising. J. Doyne Farmer's recent book "Making Sense of Chaos: A Better Economics for a Better World" is a great reading for those interested in this field.

https://www.amazon.com/Making-Sense-Chaos-author/dp/02412019...

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huitzitziltzin ◴[] No.43553188[source]
No. There is no macroeconomist who wouldn’t adopt these approaches if they were “better”.

Agent based models have been around since the 1980’s at least. No one uses them in central banks, no one uses them in industry, and you can be very confident that they’ve tried.

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1. imtringued ◴[] No.43554493[source]
You're taking this from the perspective of people who are stuck in a specific mental framework who want to prove that their mental framework is the right one, no matter how impossible it is in practice.

What if you don't care about tuning against a real macro-economy? What if the economy being fictional was the entire point?

Let's suppose you wanted to make a game that simulates a realistic economy as a gameplay element no different from say a physics engine. Why wouldn't you do it using agent based modeling? What you're saying sounds purely dogmatic now. It's more about thought termination than actually accomplishing something. After all, central banks and businesses don't give a damn that agent X did action Y at time Z for all agents, actions and times. Meanwhile in a game? It's actually essential, because the model is the reality inside that fictional world. The model is "perfect".