Recently in agent-based Category

• Tilahun, Nebiyou and David Levinson (2010) An Agent-Based Model of Worker and Job Matching

This paper proposes and tests an agent-based model of worker and job matching. The model takes residential locations of workers and the locations of employers as exogenous and deals specifically with the interactions between firms and workers in creating a job-worker match and the commute outcomes. It is meant to illustrate that by explicitly modeling the search process and the interactions between firms and individuals, origins and destinations (ODs) can be linked at a disaggregate level that is reasonably true to the actual process. The model is tested on a toy-city and the using Twin Cities are. The toy-city model illustrated that the model leads to reasonable outcomes, with agents selecting the closest work place when wage and skill differentiation is absent. Relaxing these assumptions increases the observed commute. Especially the introduction of wage dispersion in the model increases the the average home to work distance significantly. Using data from Minnesota, the results on aggregate are shown to capture the trends in the observed data, and illustrate that the behavior rules as implemented lead to reasonable patterns. The results and potential future directions are also discussed.

Recently published:

Zhang, Lei and David Levinson (2009) The Economics of Road Network Ownership: An Agent-Based Approach. International Journal of Sustainable Transport Sept. 2009 3(5) pp. 339-359. [doi]

This paper explores the economic impact of alternative ownership structures on transportation system performance, social welfare, and regulatory needs. Road pricing, investment, and ownership decisions are jointly considered in an agent-based evolutionary model applicable to large networks. Results suggest that a centralized public regime with average-cost pricing is far from socially optimal with even moderate demand growth. When properly regulated, a completely privatized transportation network could achieve net social benefits close to the theoretical optimum and distribute a high percentage of welfare gains to travelers. But an unregulated private road economy would suffer from higher-than-optimal tolls and overinvestment.

Keywords: network economics; privatization; road pricing; simulation of network evolution; transportation financing

Recently published:

Zhang, Lei, David Levinson, and Shanjiang Zhu (2008) Agent-Based Model of Price Competition and Product Differentiation on Congested Networks. . Journal of Transport Economics and Policy Sept. 2008 42(3) pp. 435-461. [download]

Using consistent agent-based techniques, this research explores the welfare consequences of product differentiation on congested networks. The economic analysis focuses on the source, evolution, measurement, and impact of product differentiation with heterogeneous users on a mixed ownership network. Path differentiation and space differentiation are defined and measured for a base scenario and several variants. The findings favour a fixed-rate road pricing policy compared to complete pricing freedom on toll roads. It is also shown that the impact of production differentiation on welfare is not always positive and depends on the level of user heterogeneity.