Adaptive and statistical expectations in a renewable resource market

Rational expectations models have increasingly been replaced by models with various forms of learning. This paper studies the global dynamics of a model of renewable resource markets due to Hommes and Rosser [Macroecon. Dyn. 5 (2001) 180] under adaptive and statistical learning systems. The statistical learning system is seen to generate greater complexity of the structures of the basins of attraction, especially at higher discount rates. An element of particular interest is that bifurcations generating lobes in the basins arise from particular focal points, associated with prefocal sets at infinity on the Poincaré equator in the statistical learning model. © 2003 IMACS. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classification: C62; D83; D84; E31; E32; M30