Task-Based Parallel Execution of Agent-Based Economic Models

Agent-based economic models can reproduce complex economic interactions, but larger simulations quickly become computationally demanding. This thesis shows how their workload can be divided into tasks and executed in parallel, providing a structured path towards more scalable economic simulations.

Siwaboon, Tuangporn, 2026

Type of Thesis Bachelor Thesis
Client Institüt für Wirtscharftsinformatik FHNW
Supervisor Christen, Patrik
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Agent-based economic models represent households, firms, banks and other actors individually and simulate how their decisions and interactions create wider economic outcomes. As the number of agents, stored information, interactions and repeated simulation runs grows, execution becomes increasingly demanding. The challenge is to determine which model operations can run at the same time without changing the intended model logic and which computing resources are suitable for them.
The thesis combines a literature-based analysis with a practical experiment in Julia. It first examines which workload characteristics affect parallel execution and develops a three-layer framework linking the economic model, computational tasks and execution resources. A simplified wealth-exchange model is then implemented in sequential and multithreaded CPU versions. Tests compare the runtime of the complete simulation with the parallelised transaction phase as the number of threads and agents changes. Correctness checks verify the simulation results.
The study shows that agent-based models should not be treated as one uniform workload. Their processes should first be divided into meaningful tasks and assessed for independence, dependencies, task size, memory access and synchronisation. In the Julia experiment, parallelising non-overlapping transactions improved performance: the transaction phase reached a maximum speedup of about 2.02, while the complete simulation reached about 1.35 with eight threads. Performance did not improve further at sixteen threads, and efficiency declined when the workload grew with the thread count. This demonstrates that adding threads alone does not guarantee proportional speedup because sequential preparation, memory access and coordination remain limiting factors. For the Institute für Wirtschaftsinformatik FHNW, the thesis provides a structured three-layer framework for analysing future agent-based economic models and selecting suitable CPU, GPU, hybrid or task-based execution approaches. It also identifies concrete directions for further development, including improved memory locality, reduced sequential preparation, parallel scenario execution and explicit dependency-aware scheduling.
Studyprogram: Business Information Technology (Bachelor)
Keywords Agent-based economic models, task-based execution, computational characteristics, workload decomposition, task granularity, dependency management, parallel computing, multicore CPU execution, GPU execution, hybrid CPU–GPU execution, task based runtime s
Confidentiality: öffentlich
Type of Thesis
Bachelor Thesis
Client
Institüt für Wirtscharftsinformatik FHNW, Olten
Authors
Siwaboon, Tuangporn
Supervisor
Christen, Patrik
Publication Year
2026
Thesis Language
English
Confidentiality
Public
Studyprogram
Business Information Technology (Bachelor)
Location
Brugg-Windisch
Keywords
Agent-based economic models, task-based execution, computational characteristics, workload decomposition, task granularity, dependency management, parallel computing, multicore CPU execution, GPU execution, hybrid CPU–GPU execution, task based runtime s