Behavioural and social factors in farm-level agent-based models for European agricultural policy evaluations

Abstract Agent-based models are valuable tools for agricultural policy evaluation. They can represent the heterogeneity of farmers and farmer interactions and are especially useful when behavioural and social factors are integrated to represent farmers’ decision-making. We assess the potential of agent-based models by conducting a review of forty-eight agent-based models developed for European agriculture and a survey with twenty-six modellers and twenty-four policy stakeholders. We find that while agent-based models provide nuanced representations of farmers’ decision-making processes, there is a gap between what is currently implemented in models, what modellers consider important and what policymakers expect.