Controlling complex policy problems: A multimethodological approach using system dynamics and network controllability

Lukas Schoenenberger and Radu Tanase

Journal of Simulation, 2018, vol. 12, issue 2, 162-170

Abstract: Notwithstanding the usefulness of system dynamics in analysing complex policy problems, policy design is far from straightforward and in many instances trial-and-error driven. To address this challenge, we propose to combine system dynamics with network controllability, an emerging field in network science, to facilitate the detection of effective leverage points in system dynamics models and thus to support the design of influential policies. We illustrate our approach by analysing a classic system dynamics model: the World Dynamics model. We show that it is enough to control only 53% of the variables to steer the entire system to an arbitrary final state. We further rank all variables according to their importance in controlling the system and we validate our approach by showing that high ranked variables have a significantly larger impact on the system behaviour compared to low ranked variables.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/17477778.2017.1387335 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tjsmxx:v:12:y:2018:i:2:p:162-170

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/tjsm20

DOI: 10.1080/17477778.2017.1387335

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Simulation is currently edited by Christine Currie

More articles in Journal of Simulation from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().