→Genetic Algorithm in the Cobweb Model: fixed many apostrophe catastrophes. I'm not sure this article should be here though - it seems only to discuss one application of GAs to the "cobweb model"
The [[cobweb model]] is a simple supply and demand model for a good over t periods. Firms (agents) make a production quantity decision in a given period, however their output is not produced until the following period. Thus, the firms are going to have to use some sort of method to forecast what the future price will be. The GA is used as a sort of learning behaviour for the firms. Initially their quantity production decisions are random, however each period they learn a little more. The result is the agents converge within the area of the [[rational expectations]] (RATEX) equilibrium for the stable and unstable case. If the election operator is used, the GA converges exactly to the RATEX equilibrium.
There are two typetypes of learning methods these agents can be deployed with: social learning and individual learning. In social learning, each firm is endowed with a single string (which is used as its quantity production decision). It then compares this string against other firmfirms's strings. In the individual learning case, agents are endowed with a pool of strings. These strings are then compared against other strings within the agent's population pool. This can be thought of as mutual competing ideas within a firm whereas in the social case, it can be thought of as a firm's learning from more successful firms. Note that in the social case and in the individual learning case with identical cost functions, that this is a homogeneous solution, that is all agentagents's production decisions are identical. However, if the cost functions are not identical, this will result in a heterogeneous solution, where firms produce different quantities (note that they are still locally homogeneous, that is within the firm's own pool all the strings are identical).
After all agent'sagents have made a quantity production decision, the quantities are aggregated and plugged into a demand function to get a price. Each firm's profit is then calculated. Fitness values are then calculated as a function of profits. After the offspring pool is generated, hypothetical fitness values are calculated. These hypothetical values are based on some sort of estimation of the price level, often just by taking the previous price level.
