Multi-Agent-Based Simulation IX

The meeting ofresearchersfrommulti-agentsystems engineeringandthe social/ economic/organizational sciences plays a vital role in the cross-fertilization of ideas,andisundoubtedlyanimportantsourceofinspirationforthebodyofkno- edge that is being produced in the multi-agent ?eld. The MABS series continues to pursue its goal of bringing together researchers interested in multi-agent s- tems with those focused on modelling complex social systems, in such areas as economics,management,andorganizationaland socialsciencesingeneral. This volume is the ninth of its series. It is based on papers accepted for the 9th International Workshop on Multi-agent-Based Simulation (MABS 2008), co-located with the 7th International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2008), which was held in Estoril, Portugal, May 12-16,2008.All the papers presented at the workshophavebeen extended, revisedand reviewedagainin orderto be partofthis volume.The successof this ?eld is re?ected in the outstanding number of submissions that we received at thattime.Forty-foursubmissionsfrom14countrieswerereceived,fromwhichwe selected 16 for presentation (near 35% acceptance). We are very grateful to the participants who provideda lively atmosphere of debate during the presentation ofthe papersandduring thegeneraldiscussiononthe challengesthattheMABS ?eld faces. We are also very grateful to all the members of the Program Committee and the additional reviewers for their hard work. Thanks are also due to Juan A. Rodriguez-Aguilar (AAMAS 2008 Workshop Chair), to Simon Parsons and Joerg P. Mueller (AAMAS 2008 General Chairs), to Lin Padgham and David Parkes (AAMAS 2008 Program Chairs) and to Ana Paiva and Luis Antunes (AAMAS 2005 Local Organization Chairs).