Modeling and Control in Social Dynamics

Market modeling: Agent based simulations and their kinetic description

Dieter Armbruster

Arizona State University

Understanding the driving forces in the markets for their products is a basic necessity for any business. A typical method to gain this understanding uses agent based simulations (ABS). Using the market of computer chips in the high-end gamers market over a 40 month time horizon which includes the recession of 2008 - 2010 we develop an ABS model and use actual sales data to adjust the parametrization of the agents and their environment. We then develop a kinetic description of the ABS and evolution equations for the density variables. We discuss the results coming from simulations of the evolution equations and their relevance for understanding the market forces.