Membrane Computing Applications in Computational Economics

Abstract

Major efforts have been made along the last decade on the modelling and simulation of phenomena within areas such as Biochemistry, Ecology or Robotics, providing solutions for relevant problems (signalling pathways, population dynamics or logic gene networks, or robot control and planning, among others). However, other areas initially explored have not received the same amount of attention. This is the case of computational economics, where an initial model of the so-called producer-retailer problem was proposed by Gh. and R. P aun making use of membrane computing modelling and simulation tools. In the present paper, we start designing a solution for that problem based on PDP systems, obtaining results comparable with the foundational paper. Then, an enhanced and enriched model is proposed, including several economic issues not considered in the initial model as: depreciation of production capacity, capacity increase decision mechanism, dividends payment and costs associated to production factors. Additionally, both models have been simulated making use of the framework provided by P-Lingua and MeCoSim, and delivering a custom application based on them to reproduce the virtual experiments. Finally, several scenarios have been analysed focusing on different elements included in the model.