These come from the Economics posts on the site, ordered by recency. Each answer is a standalone claim that links back to the source post for the simulation code, the model, or the empirical setup.
The framing is empirical. More agent-based simulations, fewer thought experiments. The Affine Wealth Model from Bruce Boghosian’s group at Tufts shows up repeatedly because it produces falsifiable predictions about wealth concentration that match 27 years of US data within 0.16% average error. Behavioral coverage starts from Kahneman, Thaler, and Ariely and lands in concrete policy questions: the zero price effect in fare-free transit, network effects versus regulatory friction in mobile money, signaling games in Super Bowl auctions. Game theory shows up where strategic structure dominates outcomes, not as a hand wave at “incentives matter.”
The default failure mode in economics writing is taking a stylized model as a moral claim. The questions below try not to do that.