A C++ Platform for the Evolution of Trade Networks

David McFadzean
Merak Project Ltd.
dbm@merak.com

Leigh Tesfatsion
Iowa State University
tesfatsi@iastate.edu

Abstract

The trade network game (TNG) developed in Tesfatsion (1995) models the interplay between evolutionary game dynamics and preferential partner selection for a family of market structures with distributed adaptive buyers and sellers. This paper presents a C++ platform for implementing the TNG, supported by the abstract base classes developed in McFadzean (1995) for a general evolutionary simulation framework, SimBioSys. The modular form of the TNG platform facilitates experimentation with alternative specifications for trade partner matching, trading, expectation updating, and trade strategy evolution. Various experimental findings are presented to illustrate the capabilities of this platform.

Society of Computational Economics
Second International Conference on Computing in Economics and Finance
Geneva, Switzerland, 26-28 June 1996