In the present article Hotelling's model of population growth and migration of 1921 is ‘revisited’. After a discussion of the stationary solutions and their stability the main point is made. The model itself is structurally unstable, but can be easily stabilized by adding a simple autonomous migration component. By this, the solution curves, in the shape of constant amplitude population waves over space for the original model, either become damped in one direction and explosive in another or are replaced by just one single spatial limit cycle.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AbrahamR HShawR, 1982–88Dynamics—The Geometry of Behaviorvolumes 1–4 (Aerial Press, Santa Cruz, CA).
2.
BeckmannM J, 1952, “A continuous model of transportation”Econometrica20643–660.
3.
BeckmannM J, 1953, “The partial equilibrium of a continuous space market”Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv7173–87.
4.
BeckmannM JPuuT, 1985Spatial Economics—Potential, Density, and Flow (North-Holland, Amsterdam).
5.
ChowS NHaleJ K, 1982Methods of Bifurcation Theory (Springer, Berlin).
6.
HotellingH, 1921, “A mathematical theory of migration”, MA thesis presented at the University of Washington; republished in Environment and Planning A101223–1239.
7.
OkuboA, 1980Diffusion and Ecological Problems (Springer, Berlin).
8.
PuuT, 1985, “A simplified model of spatiotemporal population dynamics”Environment and Planning A171263–1269.
9.
PuuT, 1989, “On growth and dispersal of populations”Annals of Regional Science23171–186.
10.
SkellamJ G, 1951, “Random dispersal in theoretical populations”Biometrika38196–218.