A theoretical inquiry into aspects of the structure and the management of ecological-economic systems

We use the theory of continuous-time Markov chains (CTMCs) to analyze hitherto unstudied questions about jointly determined ecological-economic systems. Two specific questions are examined. First, on the methodological front, we show how the theory of CTMCs can be used to effectively model dynamic and stochastic ecological-economic systems. Then, given recent concern about the sustainability of desirable states and lock-in into undesirable states, we partition the state space of our stylized ecological-economic system into good and bad states, and demonstrate the formal relationship between these two sets of states. Second, we discuss a way of looking at the task of managing ecological-economic systems that captures this formal link between the good and the bad states, and has other desirable properties.