I've always wondered if this was possible, and whether it would be accurate. With modern computers we could easily simulate 1000's of consumers and producers. If the individual behavior of consumers could be modeled accurately, we could have a realistic model of an economy. Granted modeling consumers accurately is easier said than done.
There is a large amount of study currently on virtual markets in things like MMOs. What I haven't seen much in virtual economies is the ability to loan or speculate, which drastically reduces some of the possibilities for economics simulation. The one counterexample there was the Eve Online player who ran one of the largest banks in the game, then absconded with everyone's money. The lack of any sort of enforceable contract law made any sort of repercussions difficult. Though, I wonder if his ship got blown up after that...
Personally I found it interesting when a game I play went through a large deflationary period when the game developers cut down the currency in circulation by aggressively banning exploiters and bots. It gave me a feel for what the economic commentators are talking about now with the possibility of impending deflation in the US.
Interesting. I thought more about the line of using online services like eBay's reputation system to build a private at least semi-enforcable judical system. (The anarcho-capitalists dream come true via the internet. eBay is a bad example, but I hope you see what I mean.)
