The Effect of Subsistence on Collapse and Institutional Adaptation in Population-resource Societies

John Pezzey and John M. Anderies ()
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John M. Anderies: Commonwealth Scientific and Industry Research Organisation, Sustainable Ecosystems

Economics and Environment Network Working Papers from Australian National University, Economics and Environment Network

Abstract: We extend the Brander-Taylor model of population and resource development in an isolated society by adding a resource subsistence requirement to people's preferences. This improves plausibility; amplifies population overshoot and collapse, and makes the steady state less stable; and allows for complete cessation of non-harvesting activities, in line with archaeological evidence for many societies. We then use bifurcation techniques to give a global analysis of four types of institutional adaptation: an ad valorem resource tax, and quotas on total resource harvest, total harvest effort and per capita effort. In all cases we find that a higher subsistence requirement makes it harder, or often impossible, for adaptation to avoid overshoot and collapse.

Keywords: population; renewable resources; subsistence; bifurcation; conservation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J10 N57 Q20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2002-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene
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Journal Article: The effect of subsistence on collapse and institutional adaptation in population-resource societies (2003)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:anu:eenwps:0201

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