This second book on financial and economic simulations in Swarm marks the continued progress by a group of researchers to incorporate agent-based computer models as an important tool within their disci­ pline. It is encouraging to see such a clear example of Swarm helping to foster a community of users who rely on the Swarm framework for their own analyses. Swarm aims at legitimizing agent-based computer models as a tool for the study of complex systems. A further goal is that a common base framework will lead to the growth of user communities in specific areas of application. By providing an organizing framework to guide the development of more problem-specific structures, and by dealing with a whole range of issues that affect their fundamental correctness and their ability to be developed and reused, Swarm has sought to make the use of agent-based models a legitimate tool of scientific investigation that also meets the practical needs of investigators within a community.

Francesco Luna is a specialist in Computable Economics