A Computational Model Demonstrating Market Emergence and the Division of Labour
The seminar will demonstrate a model in which agents exist in a rudimentary forage and trade economy: the agents must consume multiple resources, net of a metabolism cost, in order to survive. After foraging in each round the agents are placed on a grid where they attempt to find other agents to trade with. In the “default" scenario agents rapidly establish a single preferred location for trading - equivalent to a market square. Once trading becomes efficient and reliable, agents specialise in foraging for a single resource and the overall foraging yield rises. The model, therefore, includes institutional emergence (a type of market), and it demonstrates a relationship between the existence of a market and the division of labour.
Greg Fisher is a mature PhD student at the Institute for Complex Systems Simulation, University of Southampton, where he researches collective action in complex social systems. In 1992 he joined St John’s College, Cambridge where he studied Economics & Politics as an undergraduate. Following this Greg joined the Bank of England as a graduate entrant in 1995, working in a spectrum of roles that mixed economics and finance. Between 2004 and 2008, Greg worked for a hedge fund as a global macroeconomic strategist. Before joining the think-tank, ResPublica, in August 2010, he spent two years researching the new science of complex systems, and how it relates to economics and finance. Greg is a Senior Research Associate of the London School of Economics’ Complexity Group.
