NetLogo User Community Models
by Erel Segal Halevi (Submitted: 04/08/2012)
## WHAT IS IT?
Freedom, in Biblical economy, means that every citizen owns a land-plot. Originally, this was achieved by two means:
* Initially, all land was divided into equal plots, and each citizen got a plot;
This model checks whether it is possible to achieve the goal of Freedom (meaning, every citizen owns a land) even when the initial division is not equal.
## HOW IT WORKS
There are **num-of-citizens** citizens, and **num-of-lands** land-plots. By default they are equal, but this can be changed.
Initially, land is divided in a way defined by the **initial-land-division** menu. There are several options:
* random land division - each land goes to a citizen selected at random. This means that some citizens will have no land, while others will have many plots.
At each period, each land has some probability of being sold: the **probability-of-deal-per-period** slider. If a land is sold, it is transferred to a citizen picked at random.
After 50 periods (or a different number, set by the **periods-per-jubilee** slider), a Jubilee procedure is performed, as defined by the **jubilee-procedure** menu. There are several options:
* no-jubilee - nothing is done;
The Jubilee procedures involve some uncertainty, as the buyer does not know in advance whether the seller will be entitled to claim his land back at the Jubilee. The **reduced-uncertainty** switch allows to reduce this uncertainty in some cases: if the buyer had no other land at the initial period, and the seller had other lands, then the deal can be made permanent right now, without affecting the properties of the Jubilee algorithm.
After the Jubilee, the trade goes on as before. The simulation stops after **last-period** periods.
## HOW TO USE IT
Choose the number of citizens, the number of lands, the probability of deal per period, the number of periods per Jubilee, the total number of periods, the initial division procedure, and the Jubilee procedure. Then click **setup**.
Pressing the **go once** button will run a single period. Some lands will be sold to new owners. A directed link points from the original owners to the new owner. The color of the land will change to that of the new owner.
The land distribution is shown in the **land distribution** histogram and the **landless** plot.
As the model runs, there are more and more links. But at the Jubilee year, some or all lands return to their original owner, so some or all links are removed.
The number of deals canceled is shown in the **deals canceled** plot.
## THINGS TO NOTICE
When the Jubilee procedure is **jubilee-to-landless** or **jubilee-from-landowners**, the number of landless citizens decreases in each Jubilee, relative to the previous Jubilee. Over time, all citizens will have land. The land distribution approaches the state where all citizens have land (as long as the number of lands is not less than the number of citizens).
To see this more clearly, set the periods-per-jubilee to 1.
This apparently does not happen for **no-jubilee** or **jubilee-for-all**.
When the Jubilee procedure is **jubilee-to-landless-from-landowners**, the number of landless citizens initially decreases, but then stops decreasing and begins fluctuating. This procedure does NOT guarantee that the number of landless will not increase!
## THINGS TO TRY
How many Jubilees it takes until each citizen has a land?
How does the answer depends on the probability-of-deal?
How does the answer depends on the num-of-lands?
Try setting **periods-per-jubilee** to 1 and **probability-of-deal** to 1.0, and see how the number of landless decreases.
How does the number of deals canceled change, as more and more citizens have land?
If originally ALL citizens have land, is it still possible that some deals will NOT be canceled in the Jubilee year? What is required for this to happen? (hint: look for cycles in the graph at period 0).
## EXTENDING THE MODEL
Right now the probability of any land being sold is identical. Can you think of more realistic models?
Perhaps the model