Does Empirical Embeddedness Matter? Methodological Issues on Agent-Based Models for Analytical Social Science

The paper deals with the use of empirical data in social science agent-based models. Agent-based models are too often viewed just as highly abstract thought experiments conducted in artificial worlds, in which the purpose is to generate and not to test theoretical hypotheses in an empirical way. On the contrary, they should be viewed as models that need to be embedded into empirical data both to allow the calibration and the validation of their findings. As a consequence, the search for strategies to find and extract data from reality, and integrate agent-based models with other traditional empirical social science methods, such as qualitative, quantitative, experimental and participatory methods, becomes a fundamental step of the modelling process. The paper argues that the characteristics of the empirical target matter. According to characteristics of the target, ABMs can be differentiated into case-based models, typifications and theoretical abstractions. These differences pose different challenges for empirical data gathering, and imply the use of different validation strategies

Economic Performance, Inter-Firm Relations and Local Institutional Engineering in a Computational Prototype of Industrial Districts

Industrial districts can be conceived as complex systems characterised by a network of interactions amongst heterogeneous, localised, functionally, integrated and complementary firms. In a previous paper, we have introduced an industrial district computational prototype, showing that the economic performance of an industrial district proceeds to the form through which firms interact and co-ordinate each others. In this paper, we use such computational framework to experiment different options of local institutional engineering', trying to understand how specific supporting institutions' could perform macro-collective activities, such as, i.e., technology research, transfer and information, improving the technological adaptation of firms. Is a district more than a simple aggregation of localised firms? What can explain the economic performance of firms localised into the same space? Could some options of 'local institutional engineering, improve the performance of a district? Could such options set aside the problem of how firms dynamically interact? These are questions explored in this paper

Individual behavior and macro social properties. An agent based model

The paper aims at presenting an agent-based modeling exercise to illustrate how small differences in the cognitive properties of agents can generate very different macro social properties. We argue that it is not necessary to assume highly complicated cognitive architectures to introduce cognitive properties that matter for computational social science purposes. Our model is based on different simulation settings characterized by a gradual sophistication of behavior of agents, from simple heuristics to macro-micro feedback and other second-order properties. Agents are localized in a spatial interaction context. They have an individual task but are influenced by a collective coordination problem. The simulation results show that agents can generate efficiency at a macro level particularly when socio-cognitive sophistication of their behavior increase

Reputational Cues in Repeated Trust Games

The importance of reputation in human societies is highlighted both by theoretical models and empirical studies. In this paper, we have extended the scope of previous experimental studies based on trust games by creating treatments where players can rate their opponents' behavior and know their past ratings. Our results showed that being rated by other players and letting this rating be known are factors that increase cooperation levels even when rational reputational investment motives are ruled out. More generally, subjects tended to respond to reputational opportunities even when this was neither rational nor explainable by reciprocit

Trends in hydroidomedusan research from 1911 to 1997

The papers on hydroidomedusae published from 1911 to 1997 total 10,934. They have been assigned to the following categories: faunistics and systematics; sub-organismal biology; ecology; evolution; life cycles; paleontology. The general trend, comprising all papers, can be divided into four time intervals: the first (1911-1939) with an average of sixty papers/year and with a slight decrease due to First World War; the second one (1940-1947), with an average of 38 papers/year, marked by a dramatic decrease coinciding with Second World War; the period 1948-1991 shows a steady increase until the mid-Seventies, when a small decrease occurred, followed by an increasing trend reaching its apex in the late Eighties-early Ninenties with a record of 296 papers in 1991 and with an average of 175 papers/year; the period 1992 1997, with an average of 178 papers/year, is marked by a sharp decrease, reaching the values of the mid Sixties. The most important category in terms of number of papers is sub-organismal biology, followed by faunistics and systematics. Systematic studies dictated the trend in the first decades of the century, whereas sub-organismal ones are prevalent from the Sixties onwards. Faunistic and systematic-taxonomic papers have a steady trend of production, with just a slight decrease over these last years. The formerly leading countries in systematics (UK, USA, France) are now almost inactive in this discipline, whereas countries with little or no tradition in this field (such as Spain) are taking the leadership

La reputazione come vettore di fiducia nei sistemi socio-economici: alcuni risultati sperimentali

This paper presents the results of some laboratory experiments on the relevance of reputation for the emergence of trust and cooperation in socio-economic interaction. We have extended a repeated investment game adding new treatments where reputation is taken more explicitly into account than in the present literature. We compare treatments where the investor and the trustee rate each other and treatments where the investor and the trustee are rated by a third party. The results show that: (i) reputation impacts the behaviour of individuals even when it has no consequence on their payoffs; (ii) third party reputation positively affects cooperation by encapsulating trust; (iii) some differences in the reputation mechanism can generate different cooperation outcomes. These results have interesting implications on the recent sociological debate on the normative pillars of markets

Satellite networking integration in the 5G ecosystem: Research trends and open challenges

The envisioned 5G ecosystem will be composed of heterogeneous networks based on different technologies and communication means, including satellite communication networks. The latter can help increase the capabilities of terrestrial networks, especially in terms of higher coverage, reliability, and availability, contributing to the achievement of some of the 5G KPIs. However, technological changes are not immediate. Many current satellite communication networks are based on proprietary hardware, which hinders the integration with future 5G terrestrial networks as well as the adoption of new protocols and algorithms. On the other hand, the two main paradigms that are emerging in the networking scenario \u2014 software defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization \u2014 can change this perspective. In this respect, this article presents first an overview of the main research works in the field of SDN satellite networks in order to understand the already proposed solutions. Then some open challenges are described in light of the network slicing concept by 5G virtualization, along with a possible roadmap including different network virtualization levels. The remaining unsolved problems are related to the development and deployment of a complete integration of satellite components in the 5G ecosystem

Economic Performance, Inter-Firm Relations and Local Institutional Engineering in a Computational Prototype of Industrial Districts

Industrial districts can be conceived as complex systems characterised by a network of interactions amongst heterogeneous, localised, functionally, integrated and complementary firms. In a previous paper, we have introduced an industrial district computational prototype, showing that the economic performance of an industrial district proceeds to the form through which firms interact and co-ordinate each others. In this paper, we use such computational framework to experiment different options of local institutional engineering', trying to understand how specific supporting institutions' could perform macro-collective activities, such as, i.e., technology research, transfer and information, improving the technological adaptation of firms. Is a district more than a simple aggregation of localised firms? What can explain the economic performance of firms localised into the same space? Could some options of 'local institutional engineering, improve the performance of a district? Could such options set aside the problem of how firms dynamically interact? These are questions explored in this paper

Does Empirical Embeddedness Matter? : Methodological Issues on Agent-Based Models for Analytical Social Science

The paper deals with the use of empirical data in social science agent-based models. Agent-based models are too often viewed just as highly abstract thought experiments conducted in artificial worlds, in which the purpose is to generate and not to test theoretical hypotheses in an empirical way. On the contrary, they should be viewed as models that need to be embedded into empirical data both to allow the calibration and the validation of their findings. As a consequence, the search for strategies to find and extract data from reality, and integrate agent-based models with other traditional empirical social science methods, such as qualitative, quantitative, experimental and participatory methods, becomes a fundamental step of the modelling process. The paper argues that the characteristics of the empirical target matter. According to characteristics of the target, ABMs can be differentiated into case-based models, typifications and theoretical abstractions. These differences pose different challenges for empirical data gathering, and imply the use of different validation strategies