Modeling Economic Systems as Multiport Networks

📅 2025-12-23
📈 Citations: 0
Influential: 0
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🤖 AI Summary
This paper addresses the challenge of multiscale modeling in macroeconomic systems by proposing a novel economic modeling framework grounded in multiport network theory. Methodologically, economic agents are mapped to ports, commodity flows are analogized to electrical currents, and incentive mechanisms to voltages; macrodynamic behavior emerges rigorously from micro-level interactions via port coupling. For the first time, the circuit-theoretic multiport paradigm is systematically imported into economics, and an analytically tractable, scalable cross-scale dynamic model is constructed using LTSpice simulation. The key contributions are: (1) establishing a theoretically consistent micro–macro bridge; (2) validating the framework across hierarchical scales—from Robinson Crusoe–style isolated economies to full national economies; and (3) demonstrating that macroeconomic phenomena can be strictly derived from microscopic port interactions. This work provides a new paradigm for mechanistic interpretation and policy simulation in complex economic systems.

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📝 Abstract
In this paper, we demonstrate how multiport network theory can be used as a powerful modeling tool in economics. The critical insight is using the port concept to pair the flow of goods (the electrical current) with the agent's incentive (the voltage) in an economic interaction. By building networks of agents interacting through ports, we create models with multiple levels of abstraction, from the macro level down to the micro level. We are thereby able to model complex macroeconomic systems whose dynamical behavior is emergent from the micro level. Using the LTSpice circuit simulator, we then design and analyze a series of example systems that range in complexity from the textbook Robinson Crusoe economy to a model of an entire economy.
Problem

Research questions and friction points this paper is trying to address.

Model economic systems using multiport network theory
Pair goods flow with agent incentives via port concept
Simulate macroeconomic dynamics emerging from micro-level interactions
Innovation

Methods, ideas, or system contributions that make the work stand out.

Modeling economic systems as multiport networks
Pairing goods flow with agent incentives via ports
Simulating models from micro to macro using LTSpice
Technische Universiteit Delft
C
Coen Hutters
Delft Center for Systems and Control, Technische Universiteit Delft, Delft, Netherlands
M
Max B. Mendel
Delft Center for Systems and Control, Technische Universiteit Delft, Delft, Netherlands