Innovation in Economics: Agent-Based Computational Modelling

創新一直是經濟學長久想要補捉的現象之一, 能夠成功地描述人類的創新, 就能解釋微觀的個體興衰以及巨觀的經濟成長。本研究嘗試建立一個以商品內涵為中心的經濟體系, 包裝在生產者和消費者所組成的商品市場。個體是以軟體代理人 (software agent) 來建模, 其被賦予獨立的學習機制。藉由個體的市場互動模擬, 我們可以更進一步的瞭解創新所帶來經濟成長背後的底層結構。有別於過去的研究對商品的描述。我們使用的方法可以同時兼具商品的質與量, 換言之, 商品的異質與同質大量生產目的是為了滿足各式各樣不同的消費族群。透過消費者對商品的篩選機制, 生產者的優勝劣敗於是產生。什麼樣的特徵具有較佳的存活機率, 什麼樣的組合結構會帶來較高的經濟成長 (即創新所帶來的福利效果), 便成為我們積極想要探索的問題。Innovation has always been viewed as one of the phenomena economists ardently attempt to explain. Once the process of innovation is successfully identified, it can be applied to describe not only individual progress but also the economic development as a whole. In this study, a commodity market with producers and consumers is conducted. Each producer has been modeled as a software agent who can independently perform learning functions. The simulation of the market activities may foster our understanding of the base structure of economic development brought by innovation. Unlike past research, our approach takes into account both the quality and quantity of a manufactured good. In other words, in respond to the need of diverse consumers, a producer may choose to adopt quantity-oriented or quality-oriented strategy. Success is defined in terms of the popularity of goods. This paper aims to discuss the characteristics and commodity combinations of successful producers. By doing this, the benefit of innovation can therefore be unveiled