Modelling a Supply Chain as a Network of Markets

The field of agent-based computational economics (ACE) studies the macroeconomic regularities emerging from the local interactions of agents. In this paper, we describe a model of supply chains inspired by ACE. To this end, we present how we have connected sets of trading agents with markets so that any supply chain structure may be simulated. The basis of our model is a representation of a supply chain as a network in which every edge represents a marketplace and every node a set of companies. The companies in every node buy in the same market, and sell in another market. We implement this using a modification of the JAVA Auction Simulator API (JASA) which simulates a single auction. As an illustration of our model, we outline three possible studies based on results from the ACE literature, and preliminary results about the first of these studies are reported. The common objective of these three studies is to find new methods to control a complex system