Poverty, Disease, and the Ecology of Complex Systems

Abstract

Coupled models of ecology and economic growth can provide key insights into the formation of poverty traps that arise from complex interactions between biosocial and biophysical processes.

Economic inequality caused by feedbacks between poverty and the dynamics of a rare tropical disease: the case of Buruli ulcer in sub-Saharan Africa

“…R. Soc. B 282: 20151426 diseases and economics, showing that populations with high prevalence of diseases and low economic resources can theoretically be trapped in a 'vicious cycle' of long-term poverty and high disease burdens [12][13][14]. While such models may apply to diseases like malaria, hookworm or schistosomiasis, they do not provide insights on the impact of diseases with low prevalence but great disability burden.…”

“…Our modelling framework is based on coupled systems of human disease and economic growth, and stems from a recent body of theory on feedbacks between poverty and disease [12][13][14]. We adopt an individual-based approach to better capture withinpopulation heterogeneities of BU disease, notably issues such as incubation period, individual delay in seeking medical treatment or treatment duration.…”

“…The economic dynamics are based on the simplest standard models of economic growth [13,14,33]. Individual income y i is based on a simple Cobb-Douglas production function and is determined by the level of technology A and a combination of physical capital k and human capital h, which exhibits diminishing returns to investment (0 , a 1 þ a 2 , 1):…”

The Burden of Livestock Parasites on the Poor

“…The system described by Figure 1 can be explicitly modeled by coupling existing models of disease, livestock, and economic dynamics, variations of which have been presented elsewhere [11,12]. For heuristic purposes, Figure 2 presents the results of a stylized version of this system where both zoonotic and nonzoonotic livestock diseases are shown to influence human disease prevalence and income.…”

“…As presented in Figure 1 (main text), nonzoonotic disease can impact human health and economic productivity by diminishing livestock health and productivity, and ultimately reducing nutrients available for human consumption and economic productivity, which increases exposure and recovery rates of human disease. Adapted from [12].…”