Generating functional analysis of a model economy with hetrogeneous adaptive consumers

Abstract

This thesis examines the dynamics of a market with hetrogeneous and adaptive consumers who make their purchase decisions repeatedly. The main mathematical tool applied is the generating functional formalism. This tool allows for forming an average over the randomly assigned strategies of the consumers while simultaneously retaining all macroscopic information. The focus lies on the analysis of the stationary state of the ergodic region.

First, the problem and the appropriate model are described, the generating functional analysis is then applied and finally the analytical results are interpreted and compared to numerical computer simulations.