Agent-Based Models of Industrial Ecosystems

This three year research project is funded by a US EPA NCERQA STAR, Corporate Environmental Behavior Grant. The research study directly addresses the identification and analysis of the motivators of corporate environmental behavior. The principal investigator is Clinton J. Andrews at the E.J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy Rutgers University and to co-principal investigator is Robert Axtell of the Brookings Institution.

The objectives of this research are to investigate behavioral and organizational questions associated with environmental regulation of firms, and to test specifically whether a bottom-up approach that highlights principal-agent problems offers new insights and empirical validity. This project will investigate key questions in the new field of industrial ecology using an innovative, agent-based modeling approach. Agent-based computer simulation modeling has matured in recent years to the point that it can provide a safe laboratory for investigating how economic agents interact with one another and their environment, and for exploring alternative organizational structures and contracting arrangements that might reduce adverse impacts on the natural environment.

The project tasks includes the following:

Cross sectional statistical studies.
Case studies
PolyModel
EcoNiche
Additional activities

Expected results of the project include a suite of empirically validated models that allow research-level “what-if” investigations of the motivations behind corporate behavior. The project will add a new method to the environmental social science toolkit, and develop programming routines that will be useful for agent-based modeling of wide variety of questions in the fields of organizational behavior, public policy, and innovation studies.

For more information regarding this project contact Clinton J. Andrews, PhD at 1-732-932-3822 x721 or by email, CJA1@RCI.RUTGERS.EDU