Macroeconomics as complex system with heterogenous interacting agents

According to David Colander, economic research frontier of the XXI century has entered the postneoclassical era. Although most of the textbooks still refers to the orthodox neoclassical theory, this does not reflect the way of thinking of those economists who work at the frontier of the discipline. The domain of the neoclassical orthodoxy is over, and the discipline to its more advanced levels is looking for an alternative.
During times of upheaval, when the existing orthodoxy is in crisis and is being replaced, the
mainstream turns away from them by engaging in an attempt to replace it without necessarily bind to a
particular paradigm.
In economics will be the same: the theoretical system is already imploding and a new paradigm
becomes necessary. In my opinion the re-foundation of the economy requires a fundamental step: homo
economicus social agent that learns. It is therefore not only to abandon the method of physical reductionist and mechanistic, but to go beyond the physical itself acknowledging that economic agents are atoms that think and learn.
The agent-based models (ABM) have the potential necessary to meet the challenge, but their
development is not yet ready to offer a new and comprehensive paradigm. But what is an ABM? Simply put, they are abstract representations of reality, characterized by …