agent based models, validation, calibration, sensitivity analysis, parameter space exploration

C15, C52, C63

Since the influential survey by Windrum et al. (2007), research on empirical validation of agent-based models in economics has made substantial advances, thanks to a constant flow of high-quality contributions. This Chapter attempts to take stock of such recent literature to offer an updated critical review of existing validation techniques. We sketch a simple theoretical framework that conceptualizes existing validation approaches, which we discuss along three different dimensions: (i) comparison between artificial and real-world data; (ii) calibration and estimation of model parameters; and (iii) parameter space exploration.