Capital accumulation, aspiration adjustment, and population growth: limit cycles in an Easterlin-type model
Feichtinger, G.; Sorger, G.
Mathematical Population Studies 2(2): 93
1990
ISSN/ISBN: 0889-8480 PMID: 12282602 DOI: 10.1080/08898489009525296Document Number: 365795
"One of the recent interesting hypotheses of population growth is due to Easterlin who suggests the possibility of self-generating fluctuations in birth numbers. The present paper tries to answer the question whether feedback mechanisms produce persistent oscillations in population growth. A system of two nonlinear differential equations for the per capita capital stock and the aspiration level is studied by a phase portrait analysis. Using the Poincare-Bendixson theorem we derive sufficient conditions for the existence of a stable limit cycle." (SUMMARY IN FRE)