From Complexity to Agent Modelling and Back Again - Bruce Edmonds

6 Conclusion - complexity again

I have analysed complexity and distinguished three different kinds of complexity relevant to the modelling of economic agents: environmental complexity, the complexity of an agent's models and the behavioural complexity. The move to considering situations of greater environmental complexity leads to the consideration of agents that evaluate their models using more than just the accuracy of their models and this leads to a greater behavioural complexity. In response to such complexity we may need to use new styles of models that can capture the new behaviour and processes, i.e. the modelling language we use might need to become more sophisticated and hence also the models we build in it.

We have gone from a more closely defined version of economic complexity - environmental complexity all the way to the "sciences of complexity". All these kinds of complexity are linked but are far from identical. Hopefully this paper has elucidated the nature of these links.

From Complexity to Agent Modelling and Back Again - Bruce Edmonds - 15 MAY 97

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