An Evolutionary Framework for Determining Heterogeneous Strategies in Multi-Agent Marketplaces

Babanov, Alexander; Ketter, Wolfgang; Gini, Maria

Download This Paper

Open PDF in Browser

Add Paper to My Library

An Evolutionary Framework for Determining Heterogeneous Strategies in Multi-Agent Marketplaces

ERIM Report Series Reference No. ERS-2008-002-LIS

27 Pages Posted: 29 Jan 2008

See all articles by Alexander Babanov

Alexander Babanov

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities - Department of Economics

University of Cologne - Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences; Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Department of Technology and Operations Management; Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM)

Maria Gini

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities - Computer Science and Engineering

Abstract

We propose an evolutionary approach for studying the dynamics of interaction of strategic agents that interact in a marketplace. The goal is to learn which agent strategies are most suited by observing the distribution of the agents that survive in the market over extended periods of time. We present experimental results from a simulated market, where multiple service providers compete for customers using different deployment and pricing schemes. The results show that heterogeneous strategies evolve and co-exist in the same market.

Keywords: trading agents, multi-agent systems, genetic algorithms, simulation

JEL Classification: L15, O32, M

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Babanov, Alexander and Ketter, Wolfgang and Gini, Maria L, An Evolutionary Framework for Determining Heterogeneous Strategies in Multi-Agent Marketplaces . ERIM Report Series Reference No. ERS-2008-002-LIS, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1088225