Population, Natural Resources and Food Security Lessons from Comparing Full and Reduced Form Models

W. Lutz, S. Scherbov, A. Fuernkranz-Prskawetz, M. Dworak and Gustav Feichtinger
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Alexia Fürnkranz-Prskawetz

Working Papers from International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

Abstract: This paper discusses one of the most difficult issues in modeling complex population-environment interactions: The advantages and disadvantages of highly disaggregated empirical models versus highly reduced theoretical models. The analysis is carried out on the basis of the PEDA model, recently developed to capture interactions between population change, education, agricultural production, food security and natural resource degradation in Africa. An important feature of the approach is a non-linear food distribution function. Ranging in its use from direct science-policy communication with a number of African governments, to highly advanced dynamic mathematical analysis, PEDA turns out to be appropriate for the kind of sensitivity analysis and comparison of different levels of complexity attempted in this paper. In short, the results show that highly reduced models can never replace full empirical models, but that they show important additional features that complement the full models. For the researcher, the best understanding will be gained if one does not limit ones analysis to one level of complexity, but compares results from different levels.

Date: 2000-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Publications/Documents/IR-00-038.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found (http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Publications/Documents/IR-00-038.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.iiasa.ac.at/Publications/Documents/IR-00-038.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://iiasa.ac.at//Publications/Documents/IR-00-038.pdf [302 Found]--> https://iiasa.ac.at/Publications/Documents/IR-00-038.pdf)
http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Publications/Documents/IR-00-038.ps (application/postscript)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found (http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Publications/Documents/IR-00-038.ps [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.iiasa.ac.at/Publications/Documents/IR-00-038.ps [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://iiasa.ac.at//Publications/Documents/IR-00-038.ps [302 Found]--> https://iiasa.ac.at/Publications/Documents/IR-00-038.ps)

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:wop:iasawp:ir00038

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Thomas Krichel ().