Brandon Alcorn, Miguel Garces, Allen Hicken

In this paper we report on the deployment of “VirThai,” a virtualization type agent-based model of contemporary Thailand, to produce predictions for events of political and policy interest over the course of 2011. Predictions are inferred from distributions of outcomes across large batches of counterfactual futures. We will assess the performance of the model as a forecasting tool, as a technique for understanding the mechanisms that drive political outcomes, and as a means for stimulating new insights or lines of reasoning among country experts.

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UPDATE: This paper has since been published in the 12th volume of the Stanford Journal of East Asian Affairs. Download Here