IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/uwp/landec/v87y2011iii1p403-411.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Agroecology of an Island Economy

Author

Listed:
  • Erin L. Wolcott
  • Jon M. Conrad

Abstract

Ecologists and anthropologists have had a long-standing interest in the settlement and evolution of isolated islands, particularly Easter Island. The open access model is often used to describe the evolution of a human population and its resource base. Unfortunately, an open access model, with spiral convergence to a steady state, is inappropriate for island dynamics where the human population peaks and then goes into permanent decline. We develop more appropriate two-state and three-state models. The nonautonomous version of the three-state model, which collapses to the stable two-state model, produces dynamics that are more consistent with the history of Easter Island.

Suggested Citation

  • Erin L. Wolcott & Jon M. Conrad, 2011. "Agroecology of an Island Economy," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 87(3), pages 403-411.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:landec:v:87:y:2011:iii:1:p:403-411
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://le.uwpress.org/cgi/reprint/87/3/403
    Download Restriction: A subscripton is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brander, James A & Taylor, M Scott, 1998. "The Simple Economics of Easter Island: A Ricardo-Malthus Model of Renewable Resource Use," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(1), pages 119-138, March.
    2. Jon D. Erickson & John M. Gowdy, 2000. "Resource Use, Institutions, and Sustainability: A Tale of Two Pacific Island Cultures," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 76(3), pages 345-354.
    3. Reuveny, Rafael & Decker, Christopher S., 2000. "Easter Island: historical anecdote or warning for the future?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 271-287, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David Croix & Davide Dottori, 2008. "Easter Island’s collapse: a tale of a population race," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 27-55, March.
    2. Pezzey, John C. V. & Anderies, John M., 2003. "The effect of subsistence on collapse and institutional adaptation in population-resource societies," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 299-320, October.
    3. Roman, Sabin & Bullock, Seth & Brede, Markus, 2017. "Coupled Societies are More Robust Against Collapse: A Hypothetical Look at Easter Island," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 264-278.
    4. Kuil, Linda & Carr, Gemma & Prskawetz, Alexia & Salinas, José Luis & Viglione, Alberto & Blöschl, Günter, 2019. "Learning from the Ancient Maya: Exploring the Impact of Drought on Population Dynamics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 1-16.
    5. Late Lawson & Lawson Late, 2020. "A simple Ricardo-Malthusian model of population, deforestation and biodiversity loss," Working Papers 2020.08, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    6. Cyrus Chu, C.Y. & Lai, Ching-Chong & Liao, Chih-Hsing, 2014. "How could the non-sustainable Easter Island have been sustained?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 161-174.
    7. Nagase, Yoko & Uehara, Takuro, 2011. "Evolution of population-resource dynamics models," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 9-17.
    8. Fletcher, C.S. & Hilbert, David W., 2007. "Resilience in landscape exploitation systems," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 201(3), pages 440-452.
    9. Richard D. Horan & Jason F. Shogren & Erwin Bulte, 2003. "A Paleoeconomic Theory of Co‐Evolution and Extinction of Domesticable Animals," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 50(2), pages 131-148, May.
    10. Rafael Reuveny & John W. Maxwell, 2001. "Conflict and Renewable Resources," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 45(6), pages 719-742, December.
    11. Tiziana Ciano & Massimiliano Ferrara & Luca Guerrini, 2022. "Qualitative Analysis of a Model of Renewable Resources and Population with Distributed Delays," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-14, April.
    12. Marc Germain, 2012. "Equilibres et effondrement dans le cadre d'un cycle naturel," Brussels Economic Review, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 55(4), pages 427-455.
    13. López, Ramón & Schiff, Maurice, 2013. "Interactive dynamics between natural and man-made assets: The impact of external shocks," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 1-15.
    14. Takuro Uehara & Yoko Nagase & Wayne Wakeland, 2016. "Integrating Economics and System Dynamics Approaches for Modelling an Ecological–Economic System," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 515-531, July.
    15. Pietro Peretto & Simone Valente, 2015. "Growth on a finite planet: resources, technology and population in the long run," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 305-331, September.
    16. Zijin Xie, 2022. "Government intervention in wildlife damage management: a bioeconomic analysis of wildlife damage compensation and taxation policies," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 93-115, April.
    17. Horan, Richard D. & Shogren, Jason F. & Bulte, Erwin H., 2008. "Competitive Exclusion, Diversification, and the Origins of Agriculture," 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida 6410, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    18. Dalton, Thomas R. & Coats, R. Morris & Asrabadi, Badiollah R., 2005. "Renewable resources, property-rights regimes and endogenous growth," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 31-41, January.
    19. Pakandam, Barzin, 2009. "Why Easter Island collapsed: an answer for an enduring question," Economic History Working Papers 27864, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    20. Zachary Dockstader & Chris T. Bauch & Madhur Anand, 2019. "Interconnections Accelerate Collapse in a Socio-Ecological Metapopulation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-13, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • Q24 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Land

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:uwp:landec:v:87:y:2011:iii:1:p:403-411. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://le.uwpress.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.