This causal loop diagram illustrates the interconnected factors affecting the economic empowerment of Congolese refugee women in Rwanda, with economic dependency as the central problem reinforced by limited access to vocational training, employment opportunities, and financial services. The diagram shows two key reinforcing loops: one where vocational training leads to employment and income generation, which reduces dependency and improves access to further training (R1), and another where income generation builds self-confidence and skills recognition, leading to better employment opportunities (R2), while language barriers and cultural constraints act as inhibiting factors throughout the system.
Causal Loop Diagram: Economic Empowerment of Congolese refugee women in Rwanda.
IM-168155 Summary of Ch 27 of Mitchell Wray and Watts Textbook see IM-164967 for book overview with simplified Mike Radzicki's 2003 Evolutionary Economics history article added
This model is an attempt to simulate what is commonly
referred to as the “pesticide treadmill” in agriculture and how it played out
in the cotton industry in Central America after the Second World War until
around the 1990s.
The cotton industry expanded dramatically in Central America
after WW2, increasing from 20,000 hectares to 463,000 in the late 1970s. This
expansion was accompanied by a huge increase in industrial pesticide
application which would eventually become the downfall of the industry.
The primary pest for cotton production, bol weevil, became increasingly
resistant to chemical pesticides as they were applied each year. The
application of pesticides also caused new pests to appear, such as leafworms,
cotton aphids and whitefly, which in turn further fuelled increased application
of pesticides.
The treadmill resulted in massive increases in pesticide
applications: in the early years they were only applied a few times per season,
but this application rose to up to 40 applications per season by the 1970s;
accounting for over 50% of the costs of production in some regions.
The skyrocketing costs associated with increasing pesticide
use were one of the key factors that led to the dramatic decline of the cotton
industry in Central America: decreasing from its peak in the 1970s to less than
100,000 hectares in the 1990s. “In its wake, economic ruin and environmental
devastation were left” as once thriving towns became ghost towns, and once
fertile soils were wasted, eroded and abandoned (Lappe, 1998).
Sources: Douglas L. Murray (1994), Cultivating Crisis: The Human Cost of Pesticides in Latin America, pp35-41;
Francis Moore Lappe et al (1998), World
Hunger: 12 Myths, 2nd Edition, pp54-55.
this model shows the relationship between economic growth and government debt (just the bailout debt) and the mortgage default burden. At the current rates, the debt will never be paid off.
bailout debt, mortgage defaults and economic growth
ECONOMIC GROWTH feeds on itself, provided the growth engine is fed with materials and
finance. In this highly simplified representation some of the factors that influence economic growth
are show in the incircled green fields. Governments can influence economic growth positively
via investments and payouts. The most
obvious tool which governments can use to slow an overheated economy is
taxation.
A sample model for class discussion modeling COVID-19 outbreaks and responses from government with the effect on the local economy. Govt policy is dependent on reported COVID-19 cases, which in turn depend on testing rates less those who recover
Assumptions
The government has reduced both the epidemic and economic development by controlling immigration.
This page provides a structural analysis of POTUS Candidate Jim Webb. The method used is Integrative Propositional Analysis (IPA)
available:
http://scipolicy.org/uploads/3/4/6/9/3469675/wallis_white_paper_-_the_ipa_answer_2014.12.11.pdf
DRAFT IPA of Jim Webb POTUS candidate economic policy
A Tragedy of the Commons situation exists whenever two or more activities, each, which in order to produce results, rely on a shared limited resource. Results for these activities continue to develop as long as their use of the limited resource doesn't exceed the resource limit. Once this limit is reached the results produced by each activity are limited to the level at which the resource is replenished. As an example, consider multiple departments with an organization using IT resources, until they've exhausted IT capacity.
Environmental economics Niger Delta oil polluted case study
This page provides a structural analysis of POTUS Candidate Bernie Sanders. The method used is Integrative Propositional Analysis (IPA)
available:
http://scipolicy.org/uploads/3/4/6/9/3469675/wallis_white_paper_-_the_ipa_answer_2014.12.11.pdf
