An Agent-Based Model of the Tunisian Economy: Heterogeneity, Informal Sector, and Monetary Policy Transmission

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This agent-based model simulates Tunisia's economy with heterogeneous agents, formal and informal sectors, and credit access to reproduce observed macroeconomic dynamics and analyze policy transmission.

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The paper develops a bottom-up agent-based model of the Tunisian economy to study macroeconomic dynamics, simulating decentralized decisions and interactions of heterogeneous households and firms to generate aggregate outcomes such as GDP, inflation, and interest rates. Using explicit firm heterogeneity that distinguishes formal versus informal sectors, and implicit representations of financial and monetary institutions via credit access mechanisms and a Taylor-type monetary policy rule, the model reproduces features of Tunisia’s observed macroeconomic behavior over recent decades, including moderate, cyclical GDP growth and persistent inflation with interest-rate dynamics. The authors describe behavioral rules, channels of interaction, and emergent dynamics to capture how shocks transmit in an economy with informal activity and financial frictions, with the main limitation being that it is a preprint and not peer reviewed. This paper does not explicitly discuss endometriosis or adenomyosis; it was included in the corpus via a keyword match in the upstream search index.

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Abstract

Abstract This paper introduces an Agent-Based Model (ABM) developed to analyze the macroeconomic dynamics of the Tunisian economy. Unlike traditional aggregate models, this bottom-up approach simulates the decentralized decisions and interactions of heterogeneous households and firms, allowing for the emergence of aggregate macroeconomic variables such as GDP, inflation, and interest rates. The variables simulated by our ABM strongly reflect many characteristics of the observed macroeconomic variables of Tunisia over the last decades, including moderate GDP growth with cyclical fluctuations, persistent inflation, and interest rate dynamics. A key feature of the model is the explicit incorporation of firm heterogeneity, distinguishing between formal and informal sectors, and the implicit representation of financial and monetary institutions through credit access mechanisms and a Taylor-type monetary policy rule. We detail the behavioral rules of individual agents, the channels of interaction, and the emergent macroeconomic dynamics. The model is designed to offer a richer perspective on the transmission mechanisms of various shocks, particularly within an economy characterized by significant informal activity and financial frictions, and is calibrated to reflect the specific context of Tunisia.
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An Agent-Based Model of the Tunisian Economy: Heterogeneity, Informal Sector, and Monetary Policy Transmission | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article An Agent-Based Model of the Tunisian Economy: Heterogeneity, Informal Sector, and Monetary Policy Transmission Ramzi SALEM This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8191493/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This paper introduces an Agent-Based Model (ABM) developed to analyze the macroeconomic dynamics of the Tunisian economy. Unlike traditional aggregate models, this bottom-up approach simulates the decentralized decisions and interactions of heterogeneous households and firms, allowing for the emergence of aggregate macroeconomic variables such as GDP, inflation, and interest rates. The variables simulated by our ABM strongly reflect many characteristics of the observed macroeconomic variables of Tunisia over the last decades, including moderate GDP growth with cyclical fluctuations, persistent inflation, and interest rate dynamics. A key feature of the model is the explicit incorporation of firm heterogeneity, distinguishing between formal and informal sectors, and the implicit representation of financial and monetary institutions through credit access mechanisms and a Taylor-type monetary policy rule. We detail the behavioral rules of individual agents, the channels of interaction, and the emergent macroeconomic dynamics. The model is designed to offer a richer perspective on the transmission mechanisms of various shocks, particularly within an economy characterized by significant informal activity and financial frictions, and is calibrated to reflect the specific context of Tunisia. Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. 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