Carrying Capacity:
A Model with Logistically Varying Limits
PERRIN S. MEYER and
JESSE H. AUSUBEL
The Rockefeller University, The Program for the Human Environment,
New York, NY, 10021.
Abstract
We introduce an extension to the widely-used logistic model of
growth to a limit that in turn allows for a sigmoidally increasing
carrying capacity, that is, the invention and diffusion of
technologies which lift the limit. We study the effect of this
dynamic carrying capacity on the trajectories of simple growth
models, and we use the new model to re-analyze two actual cases of
the growth of human populations. English and Japanese examples with
two pulses, or one change in limit, appear to verify the model.
Keywords: Carrying Capacity, Growth Models, Logistic Model
Citation: Technological Forecasting and Social Change 61(3):209-214, 1999.
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