Circular equations WIP for Runy.

An initial study of the economics of single use coffee pods.

Starts from the bathtub model of economics developed by TSSEF.se (see the explanation here). It adds rich and poor and you can change the constraints on the system by moving the sliders (taxes, wages, rates, dividends etc) to see how the economic system functions at national level.

Regulation of resource allocation to production in response to inventory adequacy and delivery delay. A non-price-mediated resource allocation system. From Sterman JD Business Dynamics p172 Fig 5-27

Any activity  requires the use of energy. Economic activity is not possible without energy,  especially fossil fuels. An increase in economic activity necessarily leads to an increase in the use  fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions. In addition there will   be a commensurate increase in waste products, pollution and heat. This is dictated by the laws of physics and unavoidable.  A problem arise when the cost of this degeneration caused by continual economic growth surpasses the benefit society derives from it. The ecological economist Professor Herman Daly (2014) explained that when the impact on the ecosystem is correctly measured, global growth has reached a point where the total private and social costs of economic growth outweigh the private and social benefits. In other words, more economic growth is making global society worse off overall - growth has become uneconomic! The model shows that eventually pressures will build up that counteract the perennial belief that all social ills can be solved with economic growth. 

An initial study of the economics of single use coffee pods.

This paper aims at describing a case where system dynamics modeling was used to evaluate the effects of information and material supply lead-time variation on sales contributions margins and operating cash conversion cycle of a commodity export business.  An empirical dynamic model, loaded with econometric theory of price effect on competitive demand, was used to describe the input data.  The model simulation outputs proved themselves relevant in analyzing the complex interconnections of multiple variables affecting  the profitability in a commercial routine, supporting the decision process among sales managers.

Marine plastic is rapidly increasing due to increasing production and use of plastic in all economic activities, short use times and long life times of plastic, and large mismanagement of plastic waste. With this, the threat plastic poses to the marine biosphere is also increasing and will continue to increase over a long time into the future. Risk knowledge is limited and risk perception and awareness are not resulting in significant mitigation efforts. The case study will aim at modeling the use and life cycles of plastic and the transport paths that lead to plastic entering the ocean. The models will be used to simulate possible futures based on a scenario approach. The results of these efforts will be visualized with the goal to increase risk awareness.

From Schluter et al 2017 article A framework for mapping and comparing behavioural theories in models of social-ecological systems COMSeS2017 video. See also Balke and Gilbert 2014 JASSS article How do agents make decisions? (recommended by Kurt Kreuger U of S)

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Theory of Structural Change for IAMO Research Group

The part-whole paradigm

Examples of research issues addressed here include the path dependence of farm structures, regime shifts in land-system change, as well as transitional processes in the evolution of farm structures and innovation systems. All these issues feature counter-intuitive systemic properties that could not have been predicted using standard agricultural economics tools. The key strength of the research group in regard to the part-whole paradigm is the internationally renowned expertise in the agent-based modelling of agricultural policy. (More on what happened here until now / is happening now)

The system-environment paradigm

This paradigm is represented by conceptual research drawing inspiration from Niklas Luhmann’s theory of “complexity-reducing” and “operationally closed” social systems. The attributes of complexity reduction and operational closure are shown to generate sustainability problems, conflicts, social dilemmas, ethical issues, and divergent mental models. The organizing idea explaining these phenomena is the complexity-sustainability trade-off, i.e., the tendency of the operationally closed systems to develop excessive internal complexity that overstrains the carrying capacity of the environment. Until now, the conceptual work along these lines has focused on developing the systems-theoretic principles of ecological degradation and highlighted the sustainability-enhancing role of nonprofit organizations and corporate social responsibility. Another overarching topic has been the analysis of connections between Luhmann’s social systems theory and the evolutionary economics approaches, such as those of Thorstein Veblen and Kenneth Boulding. <!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false DE X-NONE X-NONE <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:DE;} <![endif]-->

Capitalism is in crisis and climate change disruption is now beginning to hit the bottom line. Insurance companies know this well. According to a report by the Bank of England, insured losses have risen from $10 000 million in 1985 to $50 000 million in 2015. Climate change cannot be reversed, and extreme weather events  will undoubtedly get worse in the future strengthening the disruptive effects shown in the CLD.  Another dynamic is that companies will continue to automate and, as The Economic Policy Institute has shown, fail to reflect  productivity gains in workers' salaries. The result, stagnating salaries is disastrous for demand, given that capitalism needs endlessly rising demand and consumption. A further serious problem is that as climate change gets worse there will be increasing demands for companies to assume their responsibility and bear the costs of negative externalities.  The CLD shows these factors which are likely to lead to the collapse of the system: when capitalism can no longer generate 'capital' it has stopped to serves any useful purpose. 

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The current electricity portfolio of Texas is heavily reliant on high-emission sources of fossil fuel (i.e. Coal). Texas has a range of energy options at its disposal and has the opportunity to make choices that grow renewables (e.g. solar and wind) while encouraging the production of less carbon-intensive fossil fuels (e.g. natural gas).

As boundaries to our problem, we will be using 35 years as our time frame. We will also limit our model to the State of Texas as our spatial extent. Over the past decade, Texas is becoming a major natural gas consumer; the electricity portfolio has been gradually changing. However, around 40% of electricity is still generated from burning coal, and only a very minor portion of electricity is from renewables. Texas is betting better in adopting solar and wind energy, however generally speaking the state is still falling behind in renewable energy.

The two main goals are to lower the overall emission of greenhouse gases for the electricity grid and to encourage growth of cleaner, renewable energy resources.

Our objectives include maximizing the economic benefits of exploring unconventional oil and natural gas resources, diversifying the energy portfolio of Texas, encouraging the production and exportation of unconventional hydrocarbon resources, and reallocating the added revenue to the transition to renewables, like wind and solar

Clone of IM-91683 from jacqui and vincy Summary of paper map produced by participants at the compelling case for prevention workshop 6 june 2017.