Poverty, Disease and the Ecology of Complex Systems

PLOS Biology, April 2014, Vol. 12, Issue 4

9 Pages Posted: 10 Jul 2015

See all articles by Calistus Ngonghala

Calistus Ngonghala

Harvard University - Harvard Medical School

Mateusz Plucinski

University of California, Berkeley

Megan Murray

Harvard University - Harvard Medical School

Paul E. Farmer

Harvard University - Harvard Medical School (deceased); Partners In Health (deceased)

Christopher B. Barrett

Cornell University - Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics & Management

Donald C. Keenan

University of Georgia; University of Cergy-Pontoise

Matthew Bonds

Harvard University - Department of Global Health and Social Medicine

Date Written: April 2014

Abstract

Understanding why some human populations remain persistently poor remains a significant challenge for both the social and natural sciences. The extremely poor are generally reliant on their immediate natural resource base for subsistence and suffer high rates of mortality due to parasitic and infectious diseases. Economists have developed a range of models to explain persistent poverty, often characterized as poverty traps, but these rarely account for complex biophysical processes. In this Essay, we argue that by coupling insights from ecology and economics, we can begin to model and understand the complex dynamics that underlie the generation and maintenance of poverty traps, which can then be used to inform analyses and possible intervention policies. To illustrate the utility of this approach, we present a simple coupled model of infectious diseases and economic growth, where poverty traps emerge from nonlinear relationships determined by the number of pathogens in the system. These nonlinearities are comparable to those often incorporated into poverty trap models in the economics literature, but, importantly, here the mechanism is anchored in core ecological principles. Coupled models of this sort could be usefully developed in many economically important biophysical systems — such as agriculture, fisheries, nutrition, and land use change — to serve as foundations for deeper explorations of how fundamental ecological processes influence structural poverty and economic development.

Suggested Citation

Ngonghala, Calistus and Plucinski, Mateusz and Murray, Megan and Farmer, Paul E. and Barrett, Christopher B. and Keenan, Donald C. and Keenan, Donald C. and Bonds, Matthew, Poverty, Disease and the Ecology of Complex Systems (April 2014). PLOS Biology, April 2014, Vol. 12, Issue 4, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2628715

Calistus Ngonghala

Harvard University - Harvard Medical School ( email )

25 Shattuck St
Boston, MA 02115
United States

Mateusz Plucinski

University of California, Berkeley ( email )

310 Barrows Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
United States

Megan Murray

Harvard University - Harvard Medical School ( email )

25 Shattuck St
Boston, MA 02115
United States

Paul E. Farmer

Harvard University - Harvard Medical School (deceased)

Partners In Health (deceased)

Christopher B. Barrett (Contact Author)

Cornell University - Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics & Management ( email )

315 Warren Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853-7801
United States
607-255-4489 (Phone)
607-255-9984 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://aem.cornell.edu/faculty_sites/cbb2/

Donald C. Keenan

University of Georgia ( email )

510 Brooks Hall
Athens, GA 30602
United States
706-542-3668 (Phone)

University of Cergy-Pontoise ( email )

33 Boulevard du Port
Cergy-Pontoise Cedex, Cedex 95011
France

Matthew Bonds

Harvard University - Department of Global Health and Social Medicine ( email )

Boston, MA
United States

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