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This is a reconstruction of the SIMM model presented in Chapter 2 of Feedback Economics (Contemporary Systems Thinking)

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Simple Macroeconomic Model (SIMM) (SFD)
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Pathways Causal Loop - Family connections
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A simple implementation of a Dynamic ISLM model as proposed by Blanchard (1981), and taken from An introduction to economic Dynamics - Shone (1997) - chapter 5. This model might serve as a framework to evaluate economic policies over GDP growth.
Dynamic ISLM Model
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Assignment 3 – Complex Systems

 Ryan Salvaggio - 43668070

 

The Model

This model conceptualizes the effects on a real-estate market-model utilizing agent based modelling. This model utilizes basic economic principles of supply and demand.

The model bases itself on two Agents - one being ‘Customers’ of the real estate market model, whilst the other being the Real estate itself, coined 'Houses'.

Consumers (Demand)

The Agent population, ‘Consumers’ specifies the total amount of people whom can potentially become buyers within the market. This is limited to 30 for conceptual purposes. The Agent ‘Consumer’ exists in two states, either being an ‘Active Customer’ (Active) or an ‘Inactive Customer’ (Inactive).  The transition from Inactive to Active occurs upon the basis that the ‘Budget’ of the Consumer meets the desired price of the marketplace, this is specified through the variable ‘Budget’ defining the probability that this transition will occur – this is adjustable by the user indicating a highly resistive or by accepting the market. ‘Budget’s probability in a real life scenario would be based upon numerous factors however conceptually utilizing the slider can present many of these various situations.

Upon transitioning into an active state an ‘Active consumer’ will attempt to find the closest ‘For sale household’, this is represented and carried out through the ‘Enter’ action.  Upon finding a household the consumer and house will both return to their respected inactive state thus repeating the process.

Demand – ‘Count of active customers – demand’ is then calculated by a count of Consumers transitioned and currently in the Active state. A high demand would be indicative through a high ‘Budget’ responsiveness whilst a low demand would be indicative of a low ‘Budget’ responsiveness. The increase in Price and hence supply of household thus reduces demand and vise versa.  

House (Supply)

The Agent population, ‘Houses’ specifies the total amount of households that can potentially become for sale within the market. This is limited to 112 for conceptual purposes. The Agent ‘House’ exists in two states, either being ‘For Sale’ (Active) or ‘Not for Sale’ (Inactive).  The transition from Inactive to Active occurs upon the basis that the ‘Motivation to Sell’ of the House is satisfied, this satisfaction is specified by a set probability that this transition will occur – this is adjustable by the user indicating a highly responsive or restricted house market. ‘Motivation to sell’ probability in a real life scenario would be based upon numerous factors however conceptually utilizing the slider can present many of these various situations.

Upon transitioning into an active state a ‘For Sale’ house will wait for an ‘Active Customer’ ‘this is represented and carried out through the ‘Search’ action. Upon completion of the action both states become inactive and the process continues.

Supply – ‘Count of houses for sale –supply’ is then calculated by a count of Houses ‘For Sale’ that are currently in the active state. Ultimately a high Motivation to sell would sharply increase supply, whilst a low motivation would have the adverse effects.  

Movement Speed

Movement speed – describes the base movement rate of Consumers. This variable describes the transition into the ‘Inactive’ state of a consumer, ultimately when a household is found and purchased. Movement speed affects both demand and supply in the sense that the transitioning of stages is quickened and more responsive. (Indicated by a more rigid demand and supply curve).

Market Price

In economics Price is a linear function (straight line) of the proportion of houses for sale (positive slope), and also a linear function of the proportion of buyers (negative slope).Therefore , the variable ‘Market Price’ is calculated by 10 * the portion of ‘House’ in the active state (which is the supply) over the portion of ‘Consumers’ in the active state (which is the demand) Ultimately this presents the economic principles  that as Supply is directly related to Price and demand is inversely related to Price.

Note

Each simulation (with the same settings) will present a different and unique simulation. I have set a Random Boolean to the active component that randomizes the amount of Customers or houses that begin in their active state. The probability is only 0.008 but is useful in describing the effects on the market from various position’s and seeing unique models.  

References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynuoZQbqeUg - Your First ABM/Part II

https://insightmaker.com/insight/35714/Foraging-Model

Assignment 3 - Ryan Salvaggio 43668070
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Summary WIP of Thomas Palley's 2012 Book
From Financial Crisis to Stagnation
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Clone of Pesticide Use in Central America for Lab work


This model is an attempt to simulate what is commonly referred to as the “pesticide treadmill” in agriculture and how it played out in the cotton industry in Central America after the Second World War until around the 1990s.

The cotton industry expanded dramatically in Central America after WW2, increasing from 20,000 hectares to 463,000 in the late 1970s. This expansion was accompanied by a huge increase in industrial pesticide application which would eventually become the downfall of the industry.

The primary pest for cotton production, bol weevil, became increasingly resistant to chemical pesticides as they were applied each year. The application of pesticides also caused new pests to appear, such as leafworms, cotton aphids and whitefly, which in turn further fuelled increased application of pesticides. 

The treadmill resulted in massive increases in pesticide applications: in the early years they were only applied a few times per season, but this application rose to up to 40 applications per season by the 1970s; accounting for over 50% of the costs of production in some regions. 

The skyrocketing costs associated with increasing pesticide use were one of the key factors that led to the dramatic decline of the cotton industry in Central America: decreasing from its peak in the 1970s to less than 100,000 hectares in the 1990s. “In its wake, economic ruin and environmental devastation were left” as once thriving towns became ghost towns, and once fertile soils were wasted, eroded and abandoned (Lappe, 1998). 

Sources: Douglas L. Murray (1994), Cultivating Crisis: The Human Cost of Pesticides in Latin America, pp35-41; Francis Moore Lappe et al (1998), World Hunger: 12 Myths, 2nd Edition, pp54-55.

REM 221 - Causal Loop diagramming
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WIP Ideas from Science Special Issue May 2014
The Science of Inequality
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This model shows the COVID-19 outbreaks in Burnie and the Government intervention to alleviate the crisis and also how is the intervention affect the economy.

It is assumed that the Government intervention is triggered when the COVID-19 case is equal to or more than 10. 

Government intervention - lock down the state, suppress the development of COVID-19 effectively. It is related to most of people stay at home to reduce the exposure in public area.
On the other hand, it also bring the economy of Burnie in the recession, as no tourists, no dining out activities and decrease in money spending in the city.
Burnie COVID-19 outbreaks and economic impacts_Pui Chu Daisy Cheung 524767
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Structure of model in Nathan Forrester's 1983 MIT Thesis comprising 4 models
Macroeconomics System Dynamics Nathan Forrester
3 8 months ago
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Model Explanation:

This system dynamics model visualises the impact on investment into policing and community engagement resources on the crime rates within the youth population of Bourke, NSW. 
The model also adds in the variable of funding for safe houses. With a high rate of domestic violence, unfavorable home conditions and other socio-economic factors, many youth roam the streets with no safe place to go, which may lead to negative behaviour patterns.


Assumptions

Youth Population: 700
Total youth population in 2016 for Bourke LGA was 646 (ages 10-29). (Census, 2016) Figures rounded to 700 for purposes of this model simulation. 

Constants:
70% registration and engagement rates for Community funded programs
30% attendance rate for Safe Houses
50% crime conviction rate


Variables

Positive and Negative Influences

The model shows a number of key variables that lead youth to become more vunerable to commit a crime (such as alienation, coming from households with domestic violence, boredom and socio-economic disadvantages such as low income), as well as the variables that enhance the youth's likelihood to be a contributing member of the community (developing trusted relationships and connections with others, and having a sense of self worth, purpose and pride in the community). These factors (positive and negative) are aggregated to a single rate of 50% each for the purposes of the simulation, however each individual situation would be unique.  

Police Funding / Resources

Police funding and resources means the number of active police officers attending to criminal activities, as well as prevention tactics and education programs to reduce negative behaviour. The slider can be moved to increase or decrease policing levels to view the impact on conviction rates. Current policing levels are approx 40 police to a population of under 3000 in Bourke.

Crime Rate

Youth crime rates in Australia were 3.33% (2016). Acknowledging Bourke crime rates are much higher than average, a crime rate of 40% is set initially for this model, but can be varied using the sliders. 


Community Program Funding / Resources

Community Program Funding and Resources means money, facilities and people to develop and support the running of programs such as enhancing employability through mentorship and training, recreational sports and clubs, and volunteering opportunities to give back to the community. As engagement levels in the community programs increase, the levels of crime decrease. The slider can be moved to increase or decrease funding levels to view the impact on youth registrations into the community programs.

Observations

Ideally the simulations should show that an increase in police funding reduces crime rates over time, allowing for more youth committing crimes to be convicted and subsequently rehabilitated, therefore decreasing the overall levels of youth at risk.

A portion of those youth still at risk will move to the youth not at risk category through increased funding of safe houses (allowing a space for them to get out of the negative behaviour loop and away), whom them may consider registering into the community engagement programs. An increase in funding in community engagement programs will see more youth become more constructive members of the community, and that may in turn encourage youth at risk to seek out these programs as well by way of social and sub-cultural influences.

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Justice & Community Support Investment and the Impacts on Bourke Youth Population
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COVID Systemigram
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Microeconomic measures can produce counterintuitive 'emergent' effects at the macro or systemic level. The commendable act of saving money by individuals during uncertain economic times has the perverse macroeconomic effect of making a recession  worse: in aggregate there will be less money available for spending, suppressing demand for goods and services. Economists call this effect 'the paradox of thrift'. Similarly, logical efforts by companies in such conditions to reduce their wage bill or their postponement of investment decisions will reduce spending in the economy  and deepen the economic downturn.

What can be done to counteract this harmful dynamic? The missing spending can be replaced by government spending: governments have it within their power to effectively counter economic downturns!

Microeconomic Savings can convert to Macroeconomic Costs
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Black Friday
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Rich Picture
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This model bases on the SIR model aims to indicate the relationship between the lockdown policy of the government for combating with COVID-19 and the economic activity in Burnie Tasmania during the pandemic. 

This model assumes that more COVID-19 cases will lead to the more serious lockdown policy of the local government, which indirectly affect the economic activities and economic growth. The primary reason is that the lockdown policy force people to stay at home and reduce the chance to work and consume.

The simulation trend of the model is that the economy will keep a steady increase when the serious government policy reduces the COVID-19 spreading speed rate.

COVID-19 outbreak in Burnie model by LUJIN 517217
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​Farmers use intensive pesticides to harvest cotton, which is harmful to not only the health of the farmers using them, but also our environment as it pollutes rivers and groundwater that negatively interfere with the ecosystem. Even though these farmers know of the health and environmental risks, they still use harmful pesticides to produce cotton, but why is this so. This stock and flow map should explain what impacts farmers to use pesticides to grow cotton despite the risks and explain the cause and effect relationship their use has on the cotton industry and the environment.
According to Clevo Wilson and Clem Tisdell article, "Why farmer continue to use pesticides despite environmental, health and sustainable costs,"

Pesticide use by farmers:
  • "used to reduce yield losses to pests"
  • "avoid economic losses to ensure economical survival"
  • "increase supply market and reduce market prices"
  • "ignorance of sustainable use"
  • "integral part of commercially grow high yielding varieties so without use, high yields may not be sustained"
  • "damage to agriculture land from the use occurs over long period of time so costs may not look serious short term, but reduces economic welfare in long term"
  • "environmental damage: pollutes rivers and groundwater, destroys beneficial predators and interferes with ecosystem overall"
  • "health risks underestimated"
  • "chemical companies selling it have incentive to push their use by advertising and promotion" (1,9).
Farmer Pesticide Use On Cotton
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An initial study of the economics of single use coffee pods.
Coffee Pods ISD Humanities - Anouk D 10.4
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Tragedy of the Commons Climate Change
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Ocean/atmosphere/biosphere model tuned for interactive economics-based simulations from Y2k on.
This Scenario has Affluence decreasing due to Anthropogenic climate change
Final Project 3 W/ Socio-Economic Factors - Temperature Degradation
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Ocean/atmosphere/biosphere model tuned for interactive economics-based simulations from Y2k on.
This Scenario hits Affluence (1% decrease per annum) to increase decarbonization of energy
Final Project 2 W/ Socio-Economic Factors - Reinvestment Scenario
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The recent moratorium on deep-sea drilling will reduce the supply of oil. But the world-wide trend is an ever increasing demand for it. This simple CLD  tries to illustrate the dampening effect on demand and on economic activity of diminishing oil supplies and of rising prices: oil prices  affect virtually all products and especially agricultural production. As it becomes more and more difficult to extract oil, prices must rise. At the moment the global recession counteracts this effect, but the recession will not last forever. Is it too early to speak of Peak Oil?

Economy and Oil
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WIP Clone of Conceptualizing Capitalism Insight to summarise Thorstein Veblen's writings on the Nature of Capital and other Institutional economics concepts
Veblen Nature of Capital
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Symptoms of the Structural Disease
9 months ago
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About the Model 
This model is a dynamic model which explains the relationship between the police of the government and the economy situation in Burnie Tasmania after the outbreak of Corona Virus.

This model is based on SIR model, which explains the dynamic reflection between the people who were susceptible, infected,deaths and recovered. 

Assumptions 
This model assumes that when the Covid-19 positive is equal or bigger than 10, the government policy can be triggered. This model assumes that the shopping rate in retail shops and the dining rates in the restaurants can only be influenced by the government policy.

Interesting Insights  

The government police can have negative influence on the infection process, as it reduced the possibility of people get infected in the public environments. The government policy has a negative effect on shopping rate in retail shops and the dining rate in the restaurants. 

However, the government policy would cause negative influence on economy. As people can not  shopping as normal they did, and they can not dinning in the restaurants. The retail selling growth rate and restaurant revenue growth rate would be reduced, and the economic situation would go worse. 
Corona virus outbreak in Burnie Tasmania (Xuexiao Zhang 538712)