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Semi-Artificial Models of Populations: Connecting Demography with Agent-Based Modelling

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Advances in Computational Social Science

Part of the book series: Agent-Based Social Systems ((ABSS,volume 11))

Abstract

In this paper we present an agent-based model of the dynamics of mortality, fertility, and partnership formation in a closed population. Our goal is to bridge the methodological and conceptual gaps that remain between demography and agent-based social simulation approaches. The model construction incorporates elements of both perspectives, with demography contributing empirical data on population dynamics, subsequently embedded in an agent-based model situated on a 2D grid space. While taking inspiration from previous work applying agent-based simulation methodologies to demography, we extend this basic concept to a complete model of population change, which includes spatial elements as well as additional agent properties. Given the connection to empirical work based on demographic data for the United Kingdom, this model allows us to analyse population dynamics on several levels, from the individual, to the household, and to the whole simulated population. We propose that such an approach bolsters the strength of demographic analysis, adding additional explanatory power.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See [27] for a further explication of this approach, and [28] for an additional example using a different modelling platform.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank our anonymous reviewers for their comments, which helped improve our earlier draft. We would also like to thank attendees of the 4th World Congress on Social Simulation in Taipei for their valuable feedback. This work was supported by the EPSRC Grant EP/H021698/1 Care Life Cycle, funded within the Complexity Science in the Real World theme.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK

    Eric Silverman, Jakub Bijak, Jason Noble, Viet Cao & Jason Hilton

Authors
  1. Eric Silverman
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  2. Jakub Bijak
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  3. Jason Noble
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  4. Viet Cao
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  5. Jason Hilton
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eric Silverman .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Shu-Heng Chen

  2. Department of Computational Intelligence and Systems Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan

    Takao Terano

  3. Department of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan

    Ryuichi Yamamoto

  4. Department of Economics, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan

    Chung-Ching Tai

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Silverman, E., Bijak, J., Noble, J., Cao, V., Hilton, J. (2014). Semi-Artificial Models of Populations: Connecting Demography with Agent-Based Modelling. In: Chen, SH., Terano, T., Yamamoto, R., Tai, CC. (eds) Advances in Computational Social Science. Agent-Based Social Systems, vol 11. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54847-8_12

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