Policy and Complex Systems - Volume 3 Number 2 - Fall 2017
Simulating Heterogeneous Farmer Behaviors under Different Policy Schemes : Integrating Economic Experiments and Agent-Based Modeling
Shang Wu , A Asim Zia , B Mengyuan Ren , C Kent Messer D
Abstract
In this paper , we develop an agent-based model that scales up results from economic experiments on technology diffusion and abatement of non-point source water pollution under the conditions of an actual watershed . The results from the economic experiments provide the foundation for assumptions used in the agent-based model . Data from geographic information systems and the US Census of Agriculture initialize and parameterize the model . This integrated model enables the exploration of the effects of several policy interventions on technology diffusion and agricultural production and , hence , on agricultural non-point source pollution . Simulation results demonstrate that information “ nudges ” based on social comparisons increase ambientbased policy performance as well as efficiency , especially individuallevel tailored information on what others like them have done in past similar situations .
Keywords : economic experiments , agent-based model , non-point source pollution , policy evaluation , farmer behavior
A
Shang Wu is a Ph . D . candidate in Economics and research assistant in Center for Experimental and Applied Economics at the University of Delaware .
B
Asim Zia is an Associate Professor of Public Policy and Decision Analysis in the Department of Community Development and Applied Economics , with a secondary appointment in the Department of Computer Science , at the University of Vermont .
C
Mengyuan Ren holds a M . S . in Computer Science from the University of Delaware .
D
Kent Messer is Unidel Howard Cosgrove Chair for the Environment and Professor in Applied Economics and Statistics at the University of Delaware .
164 doi : 10.18278 / jpcs . 3.2.10