The Simple Economics of Easter Island: A Ricardo-Malthus Model of Renewable Resource Use
构建了一个关于可再生资源与人口动态的一般均衡模型，类似洛特卡-沃尔泰拉捕食者-猎物模型，将人类视为捕食者、资源基础视为猎物。作者将该模型应用于复活节岛的兴衰，表明合理的参数值会产生人口和资源存量的“盛宴与饥荒”周期性调整模式，并讨论了其他可能因人口过度增长和内生资源退化而衰落的文明。
This paper presents a general equilibrium model of renewable resource and population dynamics related to the Lotka-Volterra predator-prey model, with man as the predator and the resource base as the prey. The authors apply the model to the rise and fall of Easter Island, showing that plausible parameter values generate a 'feast and famine' pattern of cyclical adjustment in population and resource stocks. Near-monotonic adjustment arises for higher values of a resource regeneration parameter, as might apply elsewhere in Polynesia. The authors also describe other civilizations that might have declined because of population overshooting and endogenous resource degradation. Copyright 1998 by American Economic Association.