Queensland Branch Meeting: Linking Heterogeneous Human Cognition with Household Financial Stress in an Agent-Based Model: Livestock Vaccine Decision-Making Among the Global Poor.

Queensland Branch Meeting is on 11 Mar 2022, 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM AEST

@ Room 620, Q-Block, Kelvin Grove, QUT campus/ Online

The PastoralScape agent-based model (see: Iles et al., 2020; Sottile et al., 2021)
models human and livestock agents in coupled human and environmental
systems. Historical vegetation index data is used from central Kenya covering a
period from 2005 to 2014. Heads of households, in PastoralScape, make
repeated decisions whether to vaccinate cattle against contagious bovine
pleuropneumonia (CBPP) and Rift Valley fever (RVf). The frequency, interval
between vaccinations, and the risk of infection differ between these two serious
diseases. The future orientation of potential disease infection and its impact
further complicates the decision-making process of human agents. The current
model provides an architecture for heterogeneous and dynamic cognition across
human agents. A Random Field Ising Model (RFIM) structure is used, via a logit
transformation, to introduce a memory and ‘rationality’ parameters to human
agents’ vaccination decision. In line with the growing behavioural economics
literature, the PastoralScape model is being refined to link household financial
stress with changes in cognition parameters. The seminar will document
proposed approaches for linking households’ absolute and relative financial well-
being with cognition parameters of individual heads of households. In so doing, a
conceptual framework for creating an agrarian a two-good economy is
articulated. In this economy, households realise the value of small scale crops
and cattle production.

Presenter: Dr Richard A. Iles

Dr Richard Iles is a Senior Lecturer in Economics/Econometrics within the
Federation Business School, Federation University. His research agenda currently
focuses on modelling human decision-making among the global poor with
respect to human and livestock health. Related work has been published in
Health Economics (2019), PLoSOne (2021), Journal of Artificial Societies and
Social Simulations (2021), Frontiers in Veterinary Science (2020) and Preventive
Veterinary Medicine (2022). Prior to joining Federation University (June 2020), Dr
Iles was an Assistant Professor in economics at Washington State University
(USA; 2016-2020) and a Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine (UK; 2015-2014). Dr Iles completed his PhD in economics at
Griffith University in 2015.

For those who can not attend in person, a zoom link will be sent with registration.