In the late 80s, I typed in a BASIC economy simulator I found in some computer magazine. It ran to two or three closely-typed pages (sides).
As Chancellor of the Exchequer, you set the tax-rate, interest rate, level of public spending and so on; then you ran a cycle. I can't remember whether a cycle was a month or a year. After about three years, the workers would be on strike and there would be rioting in the streets. Every time.
I wasn't particularly interested in macroeconomics at the time; I certainly had no idea how to run an economy. I have no idea how realistic the economic model was. I assume it was just a bit of fun.
But I'd like to tinker with a realistic economic model that is flexible enough to, for example, model Modern Monetary Theory.
+1 - I studied Netlogo when I dabbled in economic simulation several years back. And alas as a non-software engineer my coding skills were not up to the task for even Netlogo's simplified interface. Yet NL serves as a valuable wrapper for any mesh- or distributed agent programming problem - (for those more skilled than me). One doesn't have to know OOP or anything to get an instructive simulation - (e.g. wolves vs sheep vs grass behavior) up and running. =)
Because I don't understand it. Having a model to tinker with might help me to understand it better. It looks a bit like voodoo, but then a lot of economics looks like voodoo to me; I'm not an economist.
As Chancellor of the Exchequer, you set the tax-rate, interest rate, level of public spending and so on; then you ran a cycle. I can't remember whether a cycle was a month or a year. After about three years, the workers would be on strike and there would be rioting in the streets. Every time.
I wasn't particularly interested in macroeconomics at the time; I certainly had no idea how to run an economy. I have no idea how realistic the economic model was. I assume it was just a bit of fun.
But I'd like to tinker with a realistic economic model that is flexible enough to, for example, model Modern Monetary Theory.