Talk:Representative agent

'Representative agent' is not equivalent to 'microfoundations'[edit]

Much of the motivation given here for assuming a 'representative agent' is actually motivation for constructing 'microfoundations'. In particular, the Lucas critique called for microfoundations. Assuming a representative agent is one way of simplifying the construction of microfoundations, but it shouldn't be equated with the construction of microfoundations. The article needs some rewriting to make this distinction clearer. --Rinconsoleao 08:46, 25 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This is one of the worst articles I have seen yet -- and in general the economics articles are terrible. There are known conditions under which the representative agent exists -- the only debate should be over whether these conditions are approximately satisfied. Microfoundations do not require the existence of a stand-in household. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.143.1.53 (talk) 04:03, 6 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've done some rewriting to disentangle the 'representative agent' concept from the 'microfoundations' concept. A section on conditions for the existence of a representative agent could be useful too. Rinconsoleao (talk) 10:39, 19 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

'Heterogeneous agents' article needed[edit]

This page on representative agents includes a link to 'Heterogeneous agent', but it's a lousy link that goes to the disambiguation page for Heterogeneity, where the only link available under economics is one very loosely related econometrics link, Study heterogeneity. We need to develop a proper article on heterogeneous agents in economics, which could then be reached from the Heterogeneity page.

Exactly what the title should be is not clear. Possibilities include:

Heterogeneous agents
Heterogeneous agent models
Heterogeneous agents in economics
Heterogeneous agent models in economics
Heterogeneous agents in macroeconomics
Heterogeneous agent models in macroeconomics
Heterogeneity in economics

Personally I would favor the third suggestion: 'Heterogeneous agents in economics'. Alternatively, 'Heterogeneity in economics', which could either be a separate page from 'Heterogeneity in econometrics', or might include it as a subtopic. Rinconsoleao (talk) 16:33, 16 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Possible structure of the page:

First section: 'Heterogeneity in econometrics'. Discuss fixed effects, random effects, dummy variable (statistics), multilevel models, 'Heckman correction for selection bias', things like that. Link to Homogeneity (statistics) and Endogeneity (econometrics).

Second section: 'Heterogeneity in macroeconomic models'. Discuss two main methodologies: DSGE and ACE. Cite papers like Tesfatsion 199?, Rios-Rull 1995, and Heathcote, Storesletten, and Violante 2009. Subsection on 'Methods for calculating macroeconomic models with heterogeneous agents'. Cite Krusell and Smith 1998.

Alternatively, the page could just be titled 'Heterogeneous agents', in which case it would focus entirely on models, rather than econometrics. Rinconsoleao (talk) 16:25, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Page now exists: Heterogeneity in economics. Rinconsoleao (talk) 13:07, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]