Francesco C. Billari – författare

Agent-Based Computational Demography (ABCD) aims at starting a new stream of research among social scientists whose interests lie in understanding demographic behaviour. The book takes a micro-demographic (agent-based) perspective and illustrates the potentialities of computer simulation as an aid in theory building. The chapters of the book, written by leading experts either in demography or in agent-based modelling, address several key questions. Why do we need agent-based computational demography? How can ABCD be applied to the study of migrations, family demography, and historical demography? What are the peculiarities of agent-based models as applied to the demography of human populations? ABCD is of interest to all scientists interested in studying demographic behaviour, as well as to computer scientists and modellers who are looking for a promising field of application.

This book is the outcome of a project that started with the organisation of theTopicalWorkshopon"Agent-BasedComputationalModelling. AnInst- ment for Analysing Complex Adaptive Systems in Demography, Economics and Environment" at the Vienna Institute of Demography, December 4-6, 2003. The workshop brought together scholars from several disciplines, all- ing both for serious scienti?c debate and for informal conversation over a cup co?ee or during a visit to the wonderfulmuseums of Vienna. One of the nicest features of Agent-Based Modelling is indeed the opportunity that scholars ?nd a common language and discuss from their disciplinary perspective, in turn learning from other perspectives. Given the success of the meeting, we found it important to pursue the purpose of collecting these interdisciplinary contributions in a volume. In order to ensure the highest scienti?c standards for the book, we decided that all the contributions (with the sole exception of the introductory chapter) should have been accepted conditional on peer reviews. Generoushelpwasprovidedbyreviewers,someofwhomwereneither directly involved in the workshop nor in the book.All this would not have been possible without the funding provided by the Complex Systems N- work of Excellence (Exystence) funded by the European Union, the Vienna Institute of Demography of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Universit' a Bocconi, and ARC Systems Research GmbH, and the help of the wonderful sta? ofthe Vienna Institute of Demography(in particular,Ani Minassianand Belinda Aparicio Diaz). Agent-Based Modelling is important, interesting and also fun-we hope this book contributes to showing that. Milano Francesco C.