How multi-agent systems can be good for Behavioral Economics : a case study

In this work, we underline the benefit of techniques derived from distributed artificial intelligence, i.e. multi-agent systems, to the study of economical behavior. It aims to focus on the level of individual behaviors, as a bottom-up approach to understand the rise of economical phenomena like price fluctuation within a financial market or volatility within a labor market. In this paper, we propose an agent-based model of human decision making: CODAGE (Cognitive Decision AGEnt). In the CODAGE model, the decision maker is modeled by an entire multi-agent system, where each agent is in charge a particular sub-process of the whole decision. The architecture is intended to be as generic as possible. It could be viewed as an agentbased decision framework, in which different decision heuristics and biases could be implemented. We illustrate this approach with a simulation of a small experimental financial market, for which our model was able to replicate some human decision behaviors.