The 5^th Workshop on Economics with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents will be hosted by GREQAM, Marseille. Previous workshops were hosted by the University of Ancona in 1996, 1997 and 1998 and the University of Genoa in 1999.

OBJECTIVES OF THE WORKSHOP

Recently there has been a growing interest in finding alternative microfoundations for aggregate behaviour. The standard use of representative agent models as a basis for macroeconomics has been increasingly criticised. Despite the fact that it provides a vehicle for elegant technical analysis and uses a widely accepted model of individual behaviour it is not theoretically justified nor does it stand up to tests on empirical data.

Therefore, the need to go beyond the representative agent model has generated a considerable literature. Efforts are being made to create models that are both mathematically tractable and empirically satisfactory. In such models, the link between individual and aggregate behaviour is much more complicated than is traditionally the case in macroeconomic theory. But, it is precisely this that makes such models interesting and important.

The 5^th Workshop on Economics and Heterogeneous Interacting Agents offers an opportunity to present the latest research on various aspects of the economy as a complex system made up of multiple heterogeneous interacting agents. Research from various related domains – statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, learning, the theory of self-organising systems can all be helpful in developing more satisfactory approaches to macroeconometrics and macroeconomic theory.

Workshop topics will cover research in all areas related to models of interacting agents. These include:

• Interacting Agents: General Considerations
• Aggregation of heterogeneous agents
• The Stability of Cooperation
• Bounded Rationality
• Interacting Particle Systems and Economics
• Percolation Theory and Economics
• Learning in Economics
• Evolutionary Game Theory
• Computational Methods in Economics
• Market Structure and its Emergence
• Economic Graphs and Networks

Submitting a paper

The Programme Committee invites persons interested in making a contribution to send a long abstract of about 800 words in PostScript or in Microsoft Word electronic format:

Submission Deadline: January 20^th, 2000

Notification of acceptance: March 20^th

Final version of the accepted papers required by April 30^th , to be put on a CD and on the web page of the conference.

Presenting authors will have to register for the conference by May 15^st.

Attendance and Fees

Attendance at the Workshop is limited, with preference given to authors of accepted papers. There is no registration fee.

All participants will be required to provide for their own expenses; details on accomodation opportunities will be provided.

Information Request

For further information please contact

by e-mail to: Jean-Benoit Zimmermann jbenoit@ehess.cnrs-mrs.fr

or fax: + 33 4 91 90 02 27