A main motivation for using social simulation lies in its ability to offer a risk-free experimentation environment for the conceptual design of future policies. To this end, we develop a prototype for an agent-based social simulation environment that can support policy researchers in the design, interpretation, and documentation of their policy ideas. Our system accepts as input a policy model in its modeling language and automatically generates a first pass of online documentation for the structure and function of the model via a semantic and qualitative analysis of its code. This can be further edited by the designer. Furthermore, our app generates an editable first-pass for the documentation and explanation of alternative instantiations of the model along with the automatic evaluation of their simulation results and ranking with respect to their intended effects. Finally, it supports the formation and verification of hypotheses related to qualitative trends between policy parameters in the simulated alternatives. Consequently, the system provides an interpretable, transparent, and verifiable online account of the policy model and the experimentation of its designer with different alternatives. Our prototype is available online for testing and evaluation.

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Interpretable and Transparent Experimentation on Policy Ideas in a Social Simulation Environment

  • Nikitas M. Sgouros

摘要

A main motivation for using social simulation lies in its ability to offer a risk-free experimentation environment for the conceptual design of future policies. To this end, we develop a prototype for an agent-based social simulation environment that can support policy researchers in the design, interpretation, and documentation of their policy ideas. Our system accepts as input a policy model in its modeling language and automatically generates a first pass of online documentation for the structure and function of the model via a semantic and qualitative analysis of its code. This can be further edited by the designer. Furthermore, our app generates an editable first-pass for the documentation and explanation of alternative instantiations of the model along with the automatic evaluation of their simulation results and ranking with respect to their intended effects. Finally, it supports the formation and verification of hypotheses related to qualitative trends between policy parameters in the simulated alternatives. Consequently, the system provides an interpretable, transparent, and verifiable online account of the policy model and the experimentation of its designer with different alternatives. Our prototype is available online for testing and evaluation.