adding distributeParams to Market class. Seee econ-ark#669

HARK/core.py

@@ -938,6 +938,36 @@ def __init__(self, agents=None, sow_vars=None, reap_vars=None, const_vars=None,
  # "solveAgents" one time. If set to false, the error will never
  # print. See "solveAgents" for why this prints once or never.
 
+ def distributeParams(self,param_name,param_count,center,spread,dist_type):
+ '''
+ Distributes heterogeneous values of one parameter to the AgentTypes in self.agents.
+ Parameters
+ ----------
+ param_name : string
+ Name of the parameter to be assigned.
+ param_count : int
+ Number of different values the parameter will take on.
+ distribution : Distribution
+ A distribution.
+ Returns
+ -------
+ None
+ '''
+ param_dist = distribution.approx(N=param_count)
+
+ # Distribute the parameters to the various types, assigning consecutive types the same
+ # value if there are more types than values
+ replication_factor = len(self.agents) // param_count 
+ # Note: the double division is intenger division in Python 3 and 2.7, this makes it explicit
+ j = 0
+ b = 0
+ while j < len(self.agents):
+ for n in range(replication_factor):
+ self.agents[j](AgentCount = int(self.Population*param_dist[0][b]*self.TypeWeight[n]))
+ exec('self.agents[j](' + param_name + '= param_dist[1][b])')
+ j += 1
+ b += 1
+
  def solveAgents(self):
  '''
  Solves the microeconomic problem for all AgentTypes in this market.