6 March 2000
Dear SimSoc Participants:
In downloading my email this afternoon, I notice that the exchange
between Professors Moss and Auld has suddenly been extended to cover
remarks about agent-based computational economics (ACE) that I find
strange and misleading.
Please recall that ACE is simply defined as follows:
ACE is the computational study of economies modelled as evolving
systems of autonomous interacting agents.
How anyone can infer from this general definition that "ACE
...respecifies issues and environments to render them amenable to
analysis with a narrow range of techniques" (Moss, last email) is
totally beyond me.
If you want to see a sample of the very wide variety of issues being
addressed with agent-based computational methodology in economics,
take a look at the introductions to the two special ACE issues that I
have just completed guest editing for _Computational Economics_ and
_Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control_, which can be found at
http://www.econ.iastate.edu/tesfati/surveys.htm#ACEspec
These introductions include synopses for the included articles.
In my mind, true scholarship is looking for the wheat in other
people's work and building on it, not separating out the chaff and
making grand pronouncements that the chaff represents fundamental
error and failure of vision. I hope in the computational social
science community we can keep our eye on the prize, the exploration of
the potential usefulness of computational frameworks for the study of
important social science issues from a comprehensive inclusive point
of view.
Best wishes to you all,
Leigh
Leigh Tesfatsion Department of Economics
Tel: (515) 294-0138 Iowa State University
FAX: (515) 294-0221 Ames, IA 50011-1070
[log in to unmask] http://www.econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/
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