An Agent-based trade model : Could the absence of sailable rivers have influenced growth on the African continent?

Abstract

This paper develops an agent-based trade model, and then uses that model to test the hypothesis of whether the absence of sailable rivers on the African continent could have influenced its growth. Firstly, some growth theory is presented along with a basic introduction to agent-based modeling. The main part of the paper is devoted to introducing the model and then evaluating its results. The results indicate that under certain conditions, increased availability of trade routes is beneficial, but this is not always so.