What is the Prisoner's Dilemma?

Two players simultaneously choose to cooperate or defect. Mutual cooperation gives the best collective outcome, but individual incentives push toward defection — creating a Nash equilibrium where both defect. The simulation lets you test strategies like tit-for-tat across iterated rounds.

How does the Schelling segregation model work?

Agents on a grid are 'happy' if at least a threshold fraction of their neighbours share their type. Unhappy agents move to a random empty cell. Even with a low preference threshold (e.g. 33%), the system rapidly self-organises into highly segregated clusters.

Why do phantom traffic jams form?

The Nagel-Schreckenberg model shows that random braking by one car propagates backward as a density wave. Cars behind must slow down in chain reaction, creating a stationary jam from nothing — exactly matching real-world traffic observations.

What is market equilibrium and how does the Supply & Demand simulation show it?

Market equilibrium is the price P* at which the quantity supplied exactly equals the quantity demanded, leaving no surplus or shortage. The Supply & Demand simulation lets you shift supply and demand curves with sliders and shows how P* and Q* adjust instantly, and how price controls (floors and ceilings) create dead-weight loss.

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Economics & Social Systems

Game theory, urban growth, traffic dynamics and social behaviour — model complex socioeconomic systems with interacting agents. This category covers the core of behavioural and computational economics: how markets reach equilibrium, why prices rise, how strategic choices shape outcomes, and how individual decisions aggregate into collective patterns. By running each interactive Economics model in your browser, you learn supply and demand, Nash equilibria, replicator dynamics, inflation and growth theory through hands-on experiment rather than static formulae. Adjust parameters, watch results update in real time, and build genuine intuition for the forces that drive economies. It matters because the same principles explain real-world phenomena — from rush-hour congestion and housing segregation to central bank policy, auctions and financial markets.

8 simulations Canvas 2D · WebGL Uses Agent-Based, Cellular Automata, Nash

Economics Simulations

Open a simulation — it runs right in your browser, no installation needed

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Popular ★☆☆ Beginner

Game Theory

Prisoner's Dilemma with configurable payoff matrix. Play against strategies like tit-for-tat, always defect, random, or pavlov. Watch cooperation and betrayal unfold over hundreds of rounds.

Canvas 2D Nash Payoff Matrix

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★★☆ Moderate

Evolutionary Game Theory

Hawk-Dove game with replicator dynamics. Strategies compete on a grid: watch how cooperative or aggressive behaviours spread through a population based on fitness payoffs.

Canvas 2D Replicator Hawk-Dove

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★☆☆ Beginner

Schelling Segregation

Thomas Schelling's model of residential segregation. Even mild preferences for similar neighbours produce striking spatial clustering. Adjust tolerance threshold and watch patterns emerge.

Canvas 2D Agent-Based Segregation

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★☆☆ Beginner

Traffic Simulation

Cars on a highway following gap-based acceleration and braking logic. Observe how phantom traffic jams form spontaneously from minor perturbations at high density.

Canvas 2D Agent-Based Traffic

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★★☆ Moderate

NaSch Traffic Model

Nagel-Schreckenberg cellular automaton for highway traffic. Stochastic braking produces backward-moving density waves — phantom jams from deterministic rules plus noise.

Canvas 2D NaSch Cellular Automaton

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★☆☆ Beginner

City Growth

Diffusion-limited aggregation model of urban development. Buildings attach at the city perimeter, creating fractal growth patterns that mirror real urban sprawl morphology.

Canvas 2D DLA Urban Growth

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★★☆ Moderate

Pedestrian Flow

Social force model with collision avoidance and group behaviour. Watch lane formation in corridors, jamming at narrow exits, and the faster-is-slower effect.

Canvas 2D Social Force Crowd

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New ★★★ Hard

Solow Growth Model

Y = Kᵅ(AL)¹⁻ᵅ production function with capital accumulation. Adjust savings rate, depreciation and technology growth to see steady-state convergence and the golden rule savings rate.

Macroeconomics Growth Theory Canvas 2D

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★☆☆ Beginner New

Supply & Demand

Shift supply and demand curves with sliders. Watch the equilibrium price P* and quantity Q* respond instantly. Toggle price floors (minimum wage) or ceilings (rent control) to see surplus, shortage, and dead-weight loss areas appear.

Microeconomics Equilibrium Canvas 2D

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★☆☆ Beginner New

Inflation Simulator

See how money supply growth drives prices via the Quantity Theory of Money (MV=PQ). Model hyperinflation scenarios, central bank policy and the Phillips curve.

MV=PQ Monetary Policy Canvas 2D

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Ready ★★★ Advanced

Market Microstructure

Live order book simulation: bid and ask limit orders arrive, cancel and match via a continuous double auction. Watch the bid-ask spread, depth histogram and price discovery in real time.

Order Book Bid-Ask Spread HFT Price Discovery

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New ★★☆ Moderate

Auction Dynamics

Compare English, Dutch, first-price sealed-bid and Vickrey auctions across hundreds of rounds. Test the revenue equivalence theorem and see how bidder count and value distributions affect outcomes.

English Auction Vickrey Revenue Equivalence

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New ★★☆ Moderate

Labor Market Job Search (McCall)

McCall job search: a worker receives wage offers w ~ F(w) and accepts if w ≥ w* (reservation wage). ...

Labor Economics Search Theory McCall Model

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New ★★☆ Moderate

Cognitive Bias in Financial Markets

Herding, anchoring, and loss aversion distort prices from fundamental value. Heterogeneous agent mod...

Behavioural Finance Herding Loss Aversion

About Economics & Social Systems Simulations

Agents, strategies, and emergence — from Nash equilibria to urban patterns

Economics and social systems simulations model how individual agents, each following simple local rules, create complex collective phenomena — from rush-hour traffic jams to residential segregation patterns. These agent-based models demonstrate that macroscopic order can emerge from microscopic interactions without any central planner.

Game theory simulations let you explore the Prisoner's Dilemma and Hawk-Dove dynamics: watch how cooperation or aggression evolve through repeated interactions and payoff matrices. The evolutionary game theory model shows how strategies compete and spread in a population via replicator dynamics — the same framework biologists use to explain altruism in nature.

Urban simulations apply cellular automata to city growth (DLA diffusion-limited aggregation) and traffic (Nagel-Schreckenberg model). The Schelling segregation model proves that even mild individual preferences for similar neighbours produce stark spatial segregation — a powerful insight that changed urban sociology.

Key Concepts

Topics and algorithms you'll explore in this category

Nash EquilibriumA strategy profile where no player benefits from unilateral deviation

Replicator DynamicsSuccessful strategies reproduce proportionally in a population

Cellular AutomataGrid-based models with local update rules producing global patterns

Agent-Based ModellingIndividual agents with rules produce emergent collective behaviour

Schelling ModelMild residential preferences produce stark spatial segregation

Nagel-SchreckenbergStochastic braking produces phantom traffic jams

💰 Test Your Economics Knowledge

Five quick questions to check your understanding of economics concepts

Economics Quiz

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about this simulation category

What is the Prisoner's Dilemma?: Two players simultaneously choose to cooperate or defect. Mutual cooperation gives the best collective outcome, but individual incentives push toward defection — creating a Nash equilibrium where both defect. The simulation lets you test strategies like tit-for-tat across iterated rounds.
How does the Schelling segregation model work?: Agents on a grid are 'happy' if at least a threshold fraction of their neighbours share their type. Unhappy agents move to a random empty cell. Even with a low preference threshold (e.g. 33%), the system rapidly self-organises into highly segregated clusters.
Why do phantom traffic jams form?: The Nagel-Schreckenberg model shows that random braking by one car propagates backward as a density wave. Cars behind must slow down in chain reaction, creating a stationary jam from nothing — exactly matching real-world traffic observations.
What is market equilibrium and how does the simulation show it?: Market equilibrium is the price P* at which the quantity supplied exactly equals the quantity demanded. The Supply & Demand simulation lets you shift supply and demand curves with sliders and shows how P* and Q* adjust instantly. Enable price floors (minimum wage) or ceilings (rent control) to see surplus, shortage, and dead-weight loss areas appear on the diagram.

Other Categories

Every Economics simulation on this page runs free in your browser, so you can learn Economics online without any downloads or sign-up. Each interactive Economics model — from supply and demand and the Solow growth model to game theory, auctions and the inflation simulator — turns abstract theory into a living, adjustable experiment. Students, teachers and curious learners use these agent-based and equilibrium tools for real-world applications such as forecasting market prices, understanding monetary policy, planning urban traffic and studying social behaviour. Explore an Economics simulation today and build lasting intuition for how modern economies actually work.