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Agent-based simulations in urban economics: Applications to traffic congestion and housing markets

Simulations have considerable potential for the analysis of the evolution of economics systems, a subject often neglected by mainstream economics where the focus is on static equilibria. This thesis investigates the potential of this approach in urban economics. The purpose is to examine how global phenomena emerge from the interactions of economic agents. This is a promising method as a classical economics, lacking the appropriate analytic tools, concentrates on the existence of equilibria and refrains from investigating their stability. This study demonstrates the potential of simulations in three models. Firstly, in a standard model of traffic congestion it is shown that the Nash equilibrium is unstable and cannot be reached dynamically. Secondly, it is shown that simulations of the formation of urban land rents, reproduce elements of the theoretical equilibrium, and also endogenous vacancies, which are an important real-world phenomenon. Thirdly, an agent-based model of the housing market, which reproduces important empirical phenomena such as price dispersion, non-zero search times and vacancies, has been developed. The model provides a basis for the exploration of the complex dynamics of this market.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:CCSD/oai:tel.archives-ouvertes.fr:tel-00474659
Date22 June 2009
CreatorsMc Breen, John
PublisherEcole normale supérieure de lyon - ENS LYON
Source SetsCCSD theses-EN-ligne, France
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypePhD thesis

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