The CRISIS project was set up in the wake of the global financial crisis that showed that existing models that had been adequate for the good times were inadequate for predicting major crises.

CRISIS is an EU FP7 project with a consortium of researchers from 11 leading European academic and private sector institutions, supported by an advisory board of senior current and former policymakers and financiers. The three-year project (2011-2014) is funded by the European Commission.

The goal is to build new agent-based models, one for the EU financial system and one for its macroeconomy. The role of UvA/CeNDEF is to run laboratory macro experiments to test individual behavioral decision rules used in the agent-based model. When they are completed, CRISIS will turn the models into software that can be used by central banks and governments. For that reason, CRISIS will work in collaboration with major central banks, government economic and finance ministries, and with multilateral institutions.

CRISIS aims to develop tools to deepen policymakers’ understanding of the economic and financial system and give them realistic options for modelling the economy and designing policies and regulations.