Exploring heterogeneity among Swiss households and modeling their mobility demand with the Agent-based computational economics (ACE) approach

The thesis follows a research narrative that is constructed through chapters and their connections. The thesis first examines the heterogeneity among Swiss households regarding their mobility behavior and characteristics. It first analyzes the characteristics of habit-driven and cost-sensitive mobility users and scrutinizes the variables that increase or decrease the likelihood of being habit-driven or cost-sensitive. Then, it conducts a user segmentation study. It segments Swiss households based on their mobility behavior and characteristics. It presents the Swiss mobility segments, which are used later for economic modeling and policy recommendation, After that, the thesis builds and validates an agent-based computational economics model that incorporates the observed heterogeneity. The agents in the model can be heterogeneous regarding their socio-economic characteristics, as well as mobility behavior and preferences e.g., agents belonging to the same segment have the same utility function. Finally, the thesis uses the built model for a socio-economic study, in which the goal is to define scenarios for the Swiss mobility system and analyze each scenario with the built model. The scenarios are analyzed at the macro-level; total mobility demand and CO2 emissions per scenario have been calculated. Besides, agents’ reactions to the specific scenarios have been analyzed at the micro-level, since the model has the capability of simulating the micro-behavior of each agent separately. Overall, the thesis provides readers with empirical insights and methodological novelties that potentially improve the existing knowledge and practices in the literature.