-Village Market Simulator
-Main file: vms-lcc-main.py For Policy and Control Testing
-Original Author: William O. Ruddick
-Contact: will@grassrootseconomics.org
-Website: grassrootseconomics.org
-Last Update Date: Dec-19-2019
-History: This simulator takes an agent based approach to simulating basic economic intereactions with two currencies. Field surveys from (7) locations across Kenya and South Africa suggest that the fragility of local markets due to exogenous market conditions gives rise to volatile local markets that result in chronic seasonal illiquidity and local market stagnation. Further data suggests that endogenous sources of liquidity through circulating vouchers refered to as Community Currency (CC) can counteract these seasonal trends and increase overall trade volume.
-History2: A model of Community Currency (CC), implemented for sustainable development purposes in Kenya and South Africa, is presented here and used as a basis for an Agent Based Model (ABM). The ABM presents a simplified approach to understanding the mechanisms, impacts and limitations of Community Currencies on regional markets. Findings from the model must be validated by survey data. Preliminary findings suggest that CCs can stabilize and increase trade in local markets during erratic or seasonal exogenous market conditions. Furthermore, the effects of CCs on local markets are found to be highly dependent on the size of existing local production and service sectors.
-INSTALL: To run python vms-lcc-main.py you will need python 3+ with libraries: pygame, pylab, matplotlib, numpy (see requirments.txt)