Applied mathematical demography
In respect to the preceding editions (1977; Zbl 1060.91519), (1985; Zbl 0597.92018), written only by the first author and dealing with human demography, the present one is considerably enriched by the contribution of the second author, who is a demographer of plants and nonhuman animals. In the tradition of Alfred J. Lotka, the founding father of both demography and ecology, the Greek `demos' is interpreted as referring to both human and nonhuman individuals, so the object of the book is pushed enough far to cover the world of biology. Strong arguments are brought in favor of the claim that ``the boundaries between animal and human studies are becoming increasingly blurred''. By this extension, the book is of interest not only to demographers, but to any scholar interested in biology. The book is organized in 20 chapters, a Bibliography of almost 700 entries and an index. The titles of the chapters are the following: 1. Introduction: population without age; 2. The life table; 3. The matrix model framework; 4. Mortality comparisons; the male-female ratio; 5. Fixed regime of mortality and fertility; 6. Birth and population matrix population models; 8. Reproductive value from the life table; 9. Reproductive value from matrix models; 10. Understanding population characteristics; 11. Markov chains for individual life histories; 12. Projection and forecasting; 13. Perturbation analysis of matrix models; 14. Some types of instability; 15. The demographic theory of kinship; 16. Microdemography; 17. The multi-state model; 18. Family demography; 19. Heterogeneity and selection in population analysis; 20. Epilogue: How do we know the facts of demography?
scientific article; zbMATH DE number 2148995