Ecology of Poverty

Ecology of Poverty

Overview

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The ecology of poverty refers to the complex network of interactions that drive the dynamics of poverty and economic development. More directly, the extremely poor often rely on their natural environment for their livelihoods and suffer high rates of morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases. We combine mathematical and statistical models of ecological systems of the poor with field-based data-collection to understand dynamics of poverty and disease.


our research on the ecology of poverty addresses the following questions:
  1. What can complex systems theory teach us about the process of economic development?
  2. How does the biophysical environment shape the dynamics of poverty and economic development?
  3. How can we quantify effects of health interventions on nonlinear interactions between poverty and disease?