Macroeconomics with heterogeneous agent models: fostering transparency, reproducibility and replication

Abstract

This paper provides a detailed description of the Eurace@Unibi model, which has been developed as a versatile tool for macroeconomic analysis and policy experiments. The model explicitly incorporates the decentralized interaction of heterogeneous agents across different sectors and regions. The modeling of individual behavior is based on heuristics with empirical microfoundations. Although Eurace@Unibi has been applied successfully to different policy domains, the complexity of the structure of the model, which is similar to other agent-based macroeconomic models, makes it hard to communicate to readers the exact working of the model and enable them to check the robustness of obtained results. This paper addresses these challenges by describing the details of all decision rules, interaction protocols and balance sheet structures used in the model. Furthermore, we discuss the use of a virtual appliance as a tool allowing third parties to reproduce the simulation results and to replicate the model. The paper illustrates the potential use of the virtual appliance by providing some sensitivity analyses of the simulation output carried out using this tool.