Download or read book Agent based Models and Causal Inference written by Gianluca Manzo and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2022-01-28 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agent-based Models and Causal Inference Scholars of causal inference have given little credence to the possibility that ABMs could be an important tool in warranting causal claims. Manzo’s book makes a convincing case that this is a mistake. The book starts by describing the impressive progress that ABMs have made as a credible methodology in the last several decades. It then goes on to compare the inferential threats to ABMs versus the traditional methods of RCTs, regression, and instrumental variables showing that they have a common vulnerability of being based on untestable assumptions. The book concludes by looking at four examples where an analysis based on ABMs complements and augments the evidence for specific causal claims provided by other methods. Manzo has done a most convincing job of showing that ABMs can be an important resource in any researcher’s tool kit. Christopher Winship, Diker-Tishman Professor of Sociology, Harvard University, USA Agent-based Models and Causal Inference is a first-rate contribution to the debate on, and practice of, causal claims. With exemplary rigor, systematic precision and pedagogic clarity, this book contrasts the assumptions about causality that undergird agent-based models, experimental methods, and statistically based observational methods, discusses the challenges these methods face as far as inferences go, and, in light of this discussion, elaborates the case for combining these methods’ respective strengths: a remarkable achievement. Ivan Ermakoff, Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA Agent-based models are a uniquely powerful tool for understanding how patterns in society may arise in often surprising and counter-intuitive ways. This book offers a strong and deeply reflected argument for how ABM’s can do much more: add to actual empirical explanation. The work is of great value to all social scientists interested in learning how computational modelling can help unraveling the complexity of the real social world. Andreas Flache, Professor of Sociology at the University of Groningen, Netherlands Agent-based Models and Causal Inference is an important and much-needed contribution to sociology and computational social science. The book provides a rigorous new contribution to current understandings of the foundation of causal inference and justification in the social sciences. It provides a powerful and cogent alternative to standard statistical causal-modeling approaches to causation. Especially valuable is Manzo’s careful analysis of the conditions under which an agent-based simulation is relevant to causal inference. The book represents an exceptional contribution to sociology, the philosophy of social science, and the epistemology of simulations and models. Daniel Little, Professor of philosophy, University of Michigan, USA Agent-based Models and Causal Inference delivers an insightful investigation into the conditions under which different quantitative methods can legitimately hold to be able to establish causal claims. The book compares agent-based computational methods with randomized experiments, instrumental variables, and various types of causal graphs. Organized in two parts, Agent-based Models and Causal Inference connects the literature from various fields, including causality, social mechanisms, statistical and experimental methods for causal inference, and agent-based computation models to help show that causality means different things within different methods for causal analysis, and that persuasive causal claims can only be built at the intersection of these various methods. Readers will also benefit from the inclusion of: A thorough comparison between agent-based computation models to randomized experiments, instrumental variables, and several types of causal graphs A compelling argument that observational and experimental methods are not qualitatively superior to simulation-based methods in their ability to establish causal claims Practical discussions of how statistical, experimental and computational methods can be combined to produce reliable causal inferences Perfect for academic social scientists and scholars in the fields of computational social science, philosophy, statistics, experimental design, and ecology, Agent-based Models and Causal Inference will also earn a place in the libraries of PhD students seeking a one-stop reference on the issue of causal inference in agent-based computational models.
Download or read book Inference and Intervention written by Michael D. Ryall and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-08-22 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ryall and Bramson's Inference and Intervention is the first textbook on causal modeling with Bayesian networks for business applications. In a world of resource scarcity, a decision about which business elements to control or change – as the authors put it, a managerial intervention – must precede any decision on how to control or change them, and understanding causality is crucial to making effective interventions. The authors cover the full spectrum of causal modeling techniques useful for the managerial role, whether for intervention, situational assessment, strategic decision-making, or forecasting. From the basic concepts and nomenclature of causal modeling to decision tree analysis, qualitative methods, and quantitative modeling tools, this book offers a toolbox for MBA students and business professionals to make successful decisions in a managerial setting.
Download or read book Causality in Policy Studies written by Alessia Damonte and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-02-13 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides a methodological toolbox for conducting policy research. Recognizing that policy research spans various academic disciplines, each of which takes a different view on causality, the volume introduces a methodologically pluralistic approach to policy studies. Each chapter clarifies the research question that each technique can answer, the research design and data treatment that each technique requires for its results to be sound, the validity domain of its results, and the actual deployment of the technique through a replicable example. Techniques covered include quasi-experimental designs, approaches to account for selection bias and observed imbalances, directed acyclic graphs and structural equation models, Qualitative Comparative Analysis, Bayesian case study and process tracing, and Agent-Based Modelling. By working through the volume, readers will understand how to learn from different techniques, apply them consciously, and triangulate them to make better sense of findings. This volume is intended for advanced academic courses, as well as scholars and practitioners in policy-related fields, such as political science, economics, sociology, and public administration. This is an open access book.
Download or read book Multi Agent Based Simulation XXII written by Koen H. Van Dam and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-01-15 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the 21st International Workshop on Multi-Agent-Based Simulation, MABS 2021, held in May 2021 as part of AAMAS 2021. The conference was held virtually due to COVID 19 pandemic. The 14 revised full papers included in this volume were carefully selected from 23 submissions. The workshop focused on finding efficient solutions to model complex social systems, in such areas as economics, management, organizational and social sciences in general. In all these areas, agent theories, metaphors, models, analysis, experimental designs, empirical studies, and methodological principles, all converge into simulation as a way of achieving explanations and predictions, exploration and testing of hypotheses, better designs and systems and providing decision-support in a wide range of applications.
Download or read book Elements of Causal Inference written by Jonas Peters and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2017-11-29 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A concise and self-contained introduction to causal inference, increasingly important in data science and machine learning. The mathematization of causality is a relatively recent development, and has become increasingly important in data science and machine learning. This book offers a self-contained and concise introduction to causal models and how to learn them from data. After explaining the need for causal models and discussing some of the principles underlying causal inference, the book teaches readers how to use causal models: how to compute intervention distributions, how to infer causal models from observational and interventional data, and how causal ideas could be exploited for classical machine learning problems. All of these topics are discussed first in terms of two variables and then in the more general multivariate case. The bivariate case turns out to be a particularly hard problem for causal learning because there are no conditional independences as used by classical methods for solving multivariate cases. The authors consider analyzing statistical asymmetries between cause and effect to be highly instructive, and they report on their decade of intensive research into this problem. The book is accessible to readers with a background in machine learning or statistics, and can be used in graduate courses or as a reference for researchers. The text includes code snippets that can be copied and pasted, exercises, and an appendix with a summary of the most important technical concepts.
Download or read book Advances in Social Simulation written by Flaminio Squazzoni and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-11-01 with total page 595 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book highlights recent developments in the field of computer simulation and its application to social dynamics and behaviour. It covers latest advancements in the use of agent-based modelling by focusing on thematic issues, methodological progress and applications, including policy, industry and business. It aims to promote this interdisciplinary type of research by showing synergies, complementary and integration especially between computer sciences, social sciences, economics and organization, often bridging qualitative and quantitative research. The primary audience of this book are academics, practitioners and professionals using computer simulation for business counselling or industry.
Download or read book Systems Science and Population Health written by Abdulrahman M. El-Sayed and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Population health is complex and multileveled, encompassing dynamic interactions between cells, societies, and everything in between. Our typical approach to studying population health, however, remains oriented around a reductionist approach to conceptualizing, empirically analyzing, and intervening to improve population health. The trouble is that interventions founded on simplifying a complex world often do not work, sometimes yielding failure or, even worse, harm. The difficult truth is that "silver bullet" health science often fails, and understanding these failures can help us improve our approach to health science, and, ultimately, population health. SYSTEMS SCIENCE AND POPULATION HEALTH employs principles from across a range of sciences to refine the way we understand population health. By augmenting traditional analytic approaches with new tools like machine learning, microsimulation, and social network analysis, population health can be studied as a dynamic and complex system. This allows us to understand population health as a complex whole, offering new insights and perspectives that stand to improve the health of the public. This text offers the first educational and practical guide to this forward-thinking approach. Comprising 17 chapters from the vanguard of population health, epidemiology, computer science, and medicine, this book offers a three-part introduction to the subject: · An intellectual and conceptual history of systems science as it intersects with population health · Concise, introductory overviews of important and emerging methodological tools in systems science, including systems dynamics, agent-based modeling, microsimulation, social network analysis, and machine-learning-all with relevant examples drawn from population health literature · An exploration of future implications for systems science and its applications to our understanding of population health issues For researchers, students, and practitioners, SYSTEMS SCIENCE AND POPULATION HEALTH redefines many of the foundational elements of how we understand population health. It should not be missed.
Download or read book Computational Modeling of Infectious Disease written by Chris von Csefalvay and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2023-02-14 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Computational Modeling of Infectious Disease: With Applications in Python provides an illustrated compendium of tools and tactics for analyzing infectious diseases using cutting-edge computational methods. From simple S(E)IR models, and through time series analysis and geospatial models, this book is both a guided tour through the computational analysis of infectious diseases and a quick-reference manual. Chapters are accompanied by extensive practical examples in Python, illustrating applications from start to finish. This book is designed for researchers and practicing infectious disease forecasters, modelers, data scientists, and those who wish to learn more about analysis of infectious disease processes in the real world. Connects computational infectious disease analysis to state-of-the-art data science Conveys ideas on epidemiology and infectious disease modeling in a clear, accessible way Provides code examples to elucidate best practices
Download or read book New Horizons in Modeling and Simulation for Social Epidemiology and Public Health written by Daniel Kim and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2021-01-28 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction to state-of-the-art modeling and simulation approaches for social and economic determinants of population health New Horizons in Modeling and Simulation for Social Epidemiology and Public Health offers a comprehensive introduction to modeling and simulation that addresses the many complex research questions in social epidemiology and public health. This book highlights a variety of practical applications and illustrative examples with a focus on modeling and simulation approaches for the social and economic determinants of population health. The book contains classic case examples in agent-based modeling (ABM) as well as essential information on ABM applications to public health including for infectious disease modeling, obesity, and tobacco control. This book also surveys applications of microsimulation (MSM) including of tax-benefit policies to project impacts of the social determinants of health. Specifically, this book: Provides an overview of the social determinants of health and the public health significance of addressing the social determinants of health Gives a conceptual foundation for the application of ABM and MSM to study the social determinants of health Offers methodological introductions to both ABM and MSM approaches with illustrative examples Includes cutting-edge systematic reviews of empirical applications of ABM and MSM in the social sciences, social epidemiology, and public health Discusses future directions for empirical research using ABM and MSM, including integrating aspects of both ABM and MSM and implications for public health policies Written for a broad audience of policy analysts, public planners, and researchers and practitioners in public health and public policy including social epidemiologists, New Horizons in Modeling and Simulation for Social Epidemiology and Public Health offers a fundamental guide to the social determinants of health and state-of-the-art applications of ABM and MSM to studying the social and economic determinants of population health.
Download or read book Understanding Health Determinants written by Ian McDowell and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-05-30 with total page 543 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book assembles a wide range of explanatory perspectives on social inequalities in health. Everywhere in the world, those with less advantage die younger and suffer more illness than the wealthy. Decades of research have documented this reality and yet we lack a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms through which social circumstances ultimately influence the biological processes that lead to disease. Explanations have been proposed from various disciplines – economics, psychology, behavioral science, geography, and neuroscience – and each sheds light on parts of the overall process. But very few texts assemble these insights into an overall explanatory paradigm. Through a review of concepts and theories from a wide range of disciplines, the author outlines how these may be woven together to offer a more complete picture of how social influences 'get under the skin' to affect health and disease. As well as understanding individual health, the book assembles explanations for social disparities in health. It concludes with a proposal for a set of explanatory models that cross disciplinary boundaries. Topics explored include: Social Inequalities in Health Explanation and Causal Models for Social Epidemiology Social and Economic Theories to Explain Patterns of Disease Biological Pathways Linking Social Determinants to Health Theoretical Models of Health Behavior Work Environment and Health Social Networks, Social Support and Health Positive Influences on Health: Coping and Control The Relationship Between Personality and Health Understanding Health Determinants: Explanatory Theories for Social Epidemiology is a textbook for graduate students in epidemiology, health sciences, health policy, and psychology, as well as social science students who are studying health. It will also be of interest to general readers, and can serve as a reference for researchers in epidemiology and the health sciences who are planning studies of the social determinants of health. The book reviews theories that could be tested in such studies.
Download or read book Neighborhoods and Health written by Dustin T. Duncan and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-28 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE GROUNDBREAKING, FORMATIVE WORK IN SPATIAL EPIDEMIOLOGY -- NOW UPDATED FOR A NEW GENERATION OF RESEARCH AND PRACTICE IN PUBLIC HEALTH In 2003, Neighborhoods and Health codified the idea that a neighborhood's social and physical makeup can influence the health of people who live in it. More than a decade later, with the relationship between place and health firmly entrenched at the center of how we understand public health (and as its own scientific discipline, spatial epidemiology), this second edition of the landmark text offers another giant leap forward for the field. Offering both a synthesis of the essential research and a practical overview of the methods used to garner it, the second edition of Neighborhoods and Health is the essential guide to understanding this core component of contemporary population health -- both the journey to date and what's next.
Download or read book Complex Systems and Population Health written by Yorghos Apostolopoulos and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-29 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Currently, population health science is an integral part of global academic curricula. For over a century, the principles of the reductionist paradigm have guided population health curricula, training, research, and action. Researchers continue to draw upon these principles when theorizing, conceptualizing, designing studies, analyzing, and devising interventions to tackle complex population health problems. However, unresolved impasses in addressing pressing population health challenges have catalyzed calls for the integration of complex-systems-science-grounded approaches into population health science. Mounting evidence denotes that a complex systems paradigm can bring about dramatic, multipronged changes for education and training, and lead to innovative research, interventions, and policies. Despite the large and untapped promise of complex systems, the haphazard knowledge base from which academics, researchers, students, policymakers, and practitioners can draw has slowed their integration into the population health sciences. This volume fulfils this growing need by providing the knowledge base necessary to introduce a holistic complex systems paradigm in population health science. As such, it is the first comprehensive book in population health science that meaningfully integrates complex systems theory, methodology, modeling, computational simulation, and real-world applications, while incorporating current population health theoretical, methodological and analytical perspectives. It is intended as a programmatic primer across a broad spectrum of population health stakeholders: from university professors and graduate students, to researchers, policymakers, and practitioners.
Download or read book Assessing the Use of Agent Based Models for Tobacco Regulation written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2015-07-17 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tobacco consumption continues to be the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates the manufacture, distribution, and marketing of tobacco products - specifically cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco, and smokeless tobacco - to protect public health and reduce tobacco use in the United States. Given the strong social component inherent to tobacco use onset, cessation, and relapse, and given the heterogeneity of those social interactions, agent-based models have the potential to be an essential tool in assessing the effects of policies to control tobacco. Assessing the Use of Agent-Based Models for Tobacco Regulation describes the complex tobacco environment; discusses the usefulness of agent-based models to inform tobacco policy and regulation; presents an evaluation framework for policy-relevant agent-based models; examines the role and type of data needed to develop agent-based models for tobacco regulation; provides an assessment of the agent-based model developed for FDA; and offers strategies for using agent-based models to inform decision making in the future.
Download or read book Generative Social Science written by Joshua M. Epstein and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-02 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agent-based computational modeling is changing the face of social science. In Generative Social Science, Joshua Epstein argues that this powerful, novel technique permits the social sciences to meet a fundamentally new standard of explanation, in which one "grows" the phenomenon of interest in an artificial society of interacting agents: heterogeneous, boundedly rational actors, represented as mathematical or software objects. After elaborating this notion of generative explanation in a pair of overarching foundational chapters, Epstein illustrates it with examples chosen from such far-flung fields as archaeology, civil conflict, the evolution of norms, epidemiology, retirement economics, spatial games, and organizational adaptation. In elegant chapter preludes, he explains how these widely diverse modeling studies support his sweeping case for generative explanation. This book represents a powerful consolidation of Epstein's interdisciplinary research activities in the decade since the publication of his and Robert Axtell's landmark volume, Growing Artificial Societies. Beautifully illustrated, Generative Social Science includes a CD that contains animated movies of core model runs, and programs allowing users to easily change assumptions and explore models, making it an invaluable text for courses in modeling at all levels.
Download or read book Computational Intelligence and Intelligent Systems written by Kangshun Li and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-01-18 with total page 737 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Intelligence Computation and Applications, ISICA 2015, held in Guangzhou, China, in November 2015. The 77 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 189 submissions. The papers feature the most up-to-date research in analysis and theory of evolutionary computation, neural network architectures and learning; neuro-dynamics and neuro-engineering; fuzzy logic and control; collective intelligence and hybrid systems; deep learning; knowledge discovery; learning and reasoning.
Download or read book Complexity Economics and Sustainable Development written by Omar A. Guerrero and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-12-31 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sustainable Development Goals are global objectives set by the UN. They cover fundamental issues in development such as poverty, education, economic growth, and climate. Despite growing data across policy dimensions, popular statistical approaches offer limited solutions as these datasets are not big or detailed enough to meet their technical requirements. Complexity Economics and Sustainable Development provides a novel framework to handle these challenging features, suggesting that complexity science, agent-based modelling, and computational social science can overcome these limitations. Building on interdisciplinary socioeconomic theory, it provides a new framework to quantify the link between public expenditure and development while accounting for complex interdependencies and public governance. Accompanied by comprehensive data of worldwide development indicators and open-source code, it provides a detailed construction of the analytic toolkit, familiarising readers with a diverse set of empirical applications and drawing policy implications that are insightful to a diverse readership.
Download or read book Research Handbook on Digital Sociology written by Jan Skopek and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2023-03-02 with total page 493 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring the social implications of digital transformation, as well as demonstrating how we might use digital transformation to further sociological knowledge, this incisive Handbook provides an extensive overview of cutting-edge research on the digital turn of modern society. This title contains one or more Open Access chapters.
