Faculty Profile

Research Interests

My current research focuses on the application and dynamics of adaptive models of human behaviour in economics, which have grown in importance over the last decade. As an alternative to the assumption of rational expectations, models of learning and adaptation depart from traditional economic theory in that they assume bounded rationality of economic agents. In these alternative models, economies are inhabited by heterogeneous, interacting agents who have to learn about their environment and, based on their learning, update their beliefs and strategies in order to make economic decisions. The updating of beliefs and the resulting decisions, in turn, affect the economic outcomes. The interactions between agents and economic environment often result in nonlinear self-referential systems with complex and interesting dynamics.

I am a Research Member of the Centre for Research in Adaptive Behaviour in Economics [CRABE], affiliated with the Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University (link). The centre establishes and maintains facilities, materials, personnel and other resources dedicated to the study, teaching and practice of behavioural economics. It’s primary purpose is to develop behavioural models of learning and adaptation in areas including game theory, mechanism design, organization theory, macroeconomics, labour economics and finance.

Recent Publications and Presentations

"Particle Swarm Optimization in Agent-Based Economic Simulations of the Cornet Market Model", Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management.

"Economic modeling Using Evolutionary Algorithms: The Influence of Mutation on the Premature Convergence Effect", Computational Economics.

19th International Conference on Computing In Economics and Finance (CEF 2013), Presented by the Society for Computational Economics, July 10 - 12, 2013. "Learning General Equilibrium - Simultaneous genetic algorithm learning over both sides of multiple interdependent Cournot Oligopoly markets". (Presentation slides)

“Currency Crisis: Evolution of Beliefs, Real World Data and Policy Experiments”, with Jasmina Arifovic. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 82: 131-150, 2012.

“Intelligent mutation rate control in an economic application of genetic algorithms”. Computational Economics, 35(1):25-49, 2010.

“Revisiting Individual Evolutionary Learning in the CobwebModel – An Illustration of the VirtualSpite-Effect”, with Jasmina Arifovic. Computational Economics, 28(4):333-354, 2006.