This dissertation explores various new tools and methodologies in economic research to study real-world social and economic systems. I am interested in developing research tools tailor-made to solve important social and economic issues. I am also interested in designing tools that are flexible and adaptable enough to be used in future research. The tools explored in the dissertation include agent-based computational modeling, meta-analysis methodology, as well as other analytic and empirical methodologies. In addition to tool building, I am interested in studying the complex and evolving nature of real-world social and economic systems. The issues studied in the dissertation range from water protection to housing market crises. The dissertation aims to expand the available toolkit for economic research, to establish a connection between conventional and new tools and push the research frontier, to answer important research questions and to solve real-world problems.