2016/16 LEM Working Paper Series

A Method for Agent-Based Models Validation

Mattia Guerini and Alessio Moneta
  Keywords
 
Models validation; Agent-Based models; Causality; Structural Vector Autoregressions.


  JEL Classifications
 
C32, C52, E37


  Abstract
 
This paper proposes a new method for empirically validate simulation models that generate artificial time series data comparable with real-world data. The approach is based on comparing structures of vector autoregression models which are estimated from both artificial and real-world data by means of causal search algorithms. This relatively simple procedure is able to tackle both the problem of confronting theoretical simulation models with the data and the problem of comparing different models in terms of their empirical reliability. Moreover the paper provides an application of the validation procedure to the Dosi et al. (2015) macro-model.
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