Innovation, Collaboration & Public Policies: An Approach Based on Agents

Abstract

This work develops an Agent Based Model which seeks to study the innovation network of an economic sector intensive in highly trained human resources. This sector is composed by agents that face a restriction to the incorporation of new capital, and have the possibility to choose the proportion of its available capital devoted to each of the two goods. These agents have a menu of three strategies to seek to innovate, and thus increase their productivity. The adjustment of these strategies is done endogenously and results in a process that determines the structure of the innovation network. The consideration of public policies in the system leads to the conclusion that the effect of policies depends heavily on the specific population to which they are directed. These results are manifested both in the performance of the system and in the network structure that emerges from the evolution of the model.

Keywords: Agent Based Models, Network, Innovation, Complex Systems, Evolutionist Approach, Public Policies

JEL Classification: Y40, B52, C63, O33, O38