Abstract:
This dissertation presents a series of related agent-based models (ABMs) of the housing market in the Washington DC Metropolitan Statistical Area. The models investigate the causes of the housing market bubble and crash during the time period 1997-2009 and policies that could have avoided such a crisis. The work in this dissertation contributes to three research areas: understanding the underlying causes of the housing crisis, demonstrating the ability of ABMs to generate important macro phenomena, and improving ABM methodology.
