Marco Valente

The thesis is concerned with the endogenous evolution of demand, the competitive effects of product-embodied technological innovation and their interrelations for the evolution of markets. The discussion analyses separately demand evolution and the competitive effects of technological complexity on the evolution of products. Finally, the results from the two aspects are integrated to study the dynamics of whole markets and investigating their properties, comparing simulation results and historical evidence.

A major concern of the thesis is the methodological representation of the economic issues treated in the thesis. The thesis proposes a general-purpose software package for simulation models and four models for the study of demand, technological complexity and evolution of markets. All software is available for downloading, including the simulation language, the models implemented for the thesis and the relative documentation.

The thesis text is made of three separate volumes, which can be viewed with Acrobat Reader 4.0 (click here to download the English version for Windows):

Aiming at studying the evolution of markets, this volume discusses some general issues concerning simulation methodology, demand and technological complexity. Finally, a model for the co-evolution of demand and technology during the evolution of markets is presented.

Download Volume I

This volume focuses on the difficulties in using simulation models and proposes a software tool for the solution of the main problems identified, Laboratory for Simulation Development. The four simulation models used in Volume I are fully described, in non-technical way, and extensively commented. The models' descriptions serve as examples of the approach proposed for simulation modelling and as computational appendix to Volume I.

Download Volume II

This volume presents in detail the models of the thesis reporting the actual code used for their implementation. Given the use of Lsd for the implementation of the models (which provided the automatic model reports contained in the volume), the code is relatively simple. The reports are very useful instruments for users running the models, since, for each element of the model, describe their computational content and every connection with other elements.

Download Volume III

The thesis includes also a CD-ROM containing the thesis and all the related software. The CD can be obtained for free upon request (mail to mv@business.auc.dk, delivery conditions to be defined).

In the following is described the content of the CD distribution (individual items available for download):

• the three volumes of the thesis.
• a guide to the CD distribution reporting the main characteristics of Lsd and a brief review of the models used in the thesis.
• Lsd system ver 2.0, including the Lsd source code, Lsd manual, the models used in the thesis and two other simple exercise models. Lsd is distributed for Windows and Unix platforms. Windows distribution includes the executable of the distributed models, while Unix users need to compile the models. The distribution includes also the instructions for building Lsd models, using the Borland C++ compiler (commercial, for Windows platforms) or GNU C++ (free, for Windows and Unix).

• Download Lsd for Windows
• Download Lsd for Unix

• Windows Users. Lsd requires the Tcl/Tk libraries, ver 8.0. Windows users need to install Tcl/Tk to run the distributed models. Download Tcl/Tk for Windows. Lsd models are stand-alone executable, which users can run to reproduce a simulation run, observe the model content and results in a detailed and simple way, and test every possible configuration of the model. Instead, in order to edit the model's computational content (equations), or to create a new model, it is necessary to use a ANSI C++ compiler. Windows users can use the CYGWIN package, a port under Windows of the GNU project, including the GNU C++ compiler. Download CYGWIN (12 Mbyte). See the instruction on the CD-Guide for its configuration.
• Unix Users. Lsd requires the Tcl/Tk library (ver 8.0) and a ANSI C++ compiler. The distributed version is tested with Linux, Red-Hat, using the GNU C++ compiler. Minor adjustments may be required for other systems.