Particle Swarm Optimization in Economics
Mićo Mrkaić · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · 2006
Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a population based stochastic optimization technique. PSO is similar to optimization with Genetic Algorithms (GA). In PSO, the potential solutions (particles) move through the problem space by following the current optimum particles. Experience shows that PSO is robust accross different families of optimization problems. We use PSO in some typical economic models where the problems of local extremum points are present, for example principal agent problems, and study the performance of PSO. We also compare the performance of PSO to the performance of other stochastic optimization techniques, for example simmulated annealing