ASPEN: A Microsimulation Model of the Economy

In this report we present ASPEN, a new agent-based microeconomic simulation model of the U.S. economy being developed at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). The model is notable because it allows a large number of individual economic agents to be modeled at a high level of detail and with a great degree of freedom. Some of the features of ASPEN are (a) a sophisticated message-passing system which allows individual pairs of agents to communicate with one another, (b) the use of genetic algorithms to simulate certain agents' learning, and (c) a detailed financial sector which includes a banking system and a bond market. Results from runs of the model are also presented.