ABM-bachelor's thesis

Agent-Based-Model: if you want to choose, meet an expert. Don't talk.

Abstract

Though decision-making is a pervasive and intriguing research subject, little is known on the factors that influence the dynamic of authority, community and individuals. Citizens may consult with the "front-desk" services that are offered by the authorities or share and receive information within their social networks. For our purposes, as a private case, we focus on how individuals choose the optimal school for their children? Choosing a school is a complex problem that is characterized by uncertainty and partial information. In this paper, we present an agent-based-model (ABM) of heterogeneous interactions: citizen-citizen and citizen-human agent (authority), which account for aggregate behavior of decision-making. The model is designed from the authority's perspective, in which the availability of the human agents represents the authority's budget and resources. The aim is to explore the complex system and help policy-makers to hold a better understanding of the dynamic patterns of social interactions, and by that a better management. The following summarizes our insights from the results: (1) the interactions with proximate-citizens do not affect significantly the results of making an optimal decision. (2) The percentage of social hubs has a strong negative impact on making the optimal decision, while the prevalence of human agents (and by that the authority's involvement) has a strong positive impact. (3) The increasing of human agents' availability might have an indirect effect that helps the network to become more informative and more helpful for other citizens.