This paper uses an agent-based real options approach to analyze whether stronger vertical integration reduces investment reluctance in pork production. A competitive model in which firms identify optimal investment strategies by using genetic algorithms is developed. Two production systems are...

Mathematically oriented microeconomic research has contributed enormously to the understanding of economic behavior and the functioning of markets and institutions. However, theoretical as well as applied microeconomic studies may be driven too much by mathematical feasibility. An illustrative...

In consequence of strong changes in general economic conditions, adjustments in the agricultural sector can be expected. To date, however, there are only few policy impact analyses on agricultural investments in a dynamic-stochastic context. The objective of this paper is to develop a real...

In recent years, the dairy sector has been exposed to strong changes in general conditions and extreme fluctuations in milk prices. Farmers and lobbyists have therefore asked politicians for additional market regulation. In this paper an agent-based real options market model is developed, which...

This paper analyzes spatial competition on land rental markets. It contributes to the small body of literature that investigates the optimal spatial price policy under competition and extents previous work by considering economies of size. Because the consideration of increasing or decreasing...

More powerful computers, the better availability of micro-data, and the development of new modeling techniques, such as multi-agent systems, allows to analyze agricultural policies from the bottom up. We present such an approach that considers the spatial interaction of thousands of individually...