Behavioural agent-based economic forecasting in Julia

Welcome to BeforeIT.jl, a Julia implementation of the agent-based model presented in Economic forecasting with an agent-based model, the first ABM matching the performance of traditional economic forecasting tools.

With BeforeIT.jl, you can perform economic forecasting and explore different counterfactual scenarios. Thanks to its modular design, the package is also a great starting point for anyone looking to extend its capabilities or integrate it with other tools.

Developed in Julia, a language known for its efficiency, BeforeIT.jl is both fast and user-friendly, making it accessible whether you’re an expert programmer or just starting out.

Julia installation

To run this software, you will need a working Julia installation on your machine. If you don't have it installed already, simply follow the short instructions available here.

BeforeIT.jl Installation

To install BeforeIT.jl, simply open a Julia REPL by writing julia in your terminal, and then execute the following

using Pkg
Pkg.add("BeforeIT")

Quick example

To check that the installation worked, try running the model in your terminal following

using BeforeIT

parameters = BeforeIT.AUSTRIA2010Q1.parameters
initial_conditions = BeforeIT.AUSTRIA2010Q1.initial_conditions

T = 20
model = BeforeIT.initialise_model(parameters, initial_conditions, T)
data = BeforeIT.run_one_sim!(model)

To plot the results of the simulation, install the Plots package via Pkg.add("Plots") and then run

using Plots

plot(data.real_gdp)

License

BeforeIT.jl is released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3 or later (AGPLv3+).

Copyright 2024- Banca d'Italia and the authors.

Original authors

Other collaborators for the project

Disclaimer

This package is an outcome of a research project. All errors are those of the authors. All views expressed are personal views, not those of Bank of Italy.