An ecology-based model of sustainable economic growth

• We employ basic principles governing ecosystem growth, such as diversification, generalization and expansion, to local economies to understand the drivers and requirements for economic growth.
• This work is inspired by Jane Jacobs framing of economies as ecosystem, and with import replacement and import substitution as essential economic dynamics. This in contrary to current economic development thinking, which suggests import replacement is counterproductive to growth.
• We employ both dynamical compartmental flow techniques as well as individual-based computational models.
• Our goal is to develop applicable theory in order to make policy recommendations to Economic Development Agencies guiding strategies to encourage sustainable, natural growth.

References

Jacobs, Jane. The economy of cities. Vintage, 2016