Dear All

(Written from a soggy but unbowed Brisbane.)

Please forward to those who may be interested.

SSA Queensland Branch will be holding its first meeting for 2022 on Friday 11th March. This will be a hybrid meeting via Zoom and face-to-face.

Date: Friday 11 March 2022

Time: 12:30pm – 1:30pm AEST aka Queensland time

Speaker: Dr Richard A. Iles, Federation University

Topic: Linking heterogeneous human cognition with household financial stress in an agent-based model: livestock vaccine decision-making among the global poor.

Abstract: 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.

Biography: 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.

Physical location: Room 620, Q-Block, Kelvin Grove, QUT campus. Head to reception on Level 4 and Caroline will let you up.

Register here: https://statsoc.org.au/event-4719567 for the Zoom link.