Economics of Complexity and the Analysis of Local Regulation: The Case of Urban Mobility

In the last two decades economics of complexity provided new tools to improve the analysis of complex systems. The supply of public goods and services is an example of economic problems implying complex systems. This chapter gives some insights on the need to use advanced tools to analyse the effects of the local regulation in high complex systems, focusing on agent-based models (ABMs) and their application to urban mobility and transport management policies. It provides a review of research on this issue, explicitly focusing on urban areas where different agents interact, passenger flows and their negative effects on the community are increasing and the need to identify effective and efficient regulation policies for more sustainable transport has become a key challenge. ABMs demonstrate to present important advantages for evaluating public policies and particularly the case of passengers mobility.