Background
ARTHUR, W. Brian was born in 1945 in Belfast, N. Ireland.
ARTHUR, W. Brian was born in 1945 in Belfast, N. Ireland.
Bachelor of Science (Electrical Engineering) Queen's University Belfast, North. Ireland, 1966. Master of Arts (Oregon) University Lancaster, England, 1967. Master of Arts (Mathematics) University Michigan, 1969.
Master of Arts, Doctor of Philosophy (Oregon) University California Berkeley, 1973, 1973.
Assistant Professor of Economics, University California Berkeley, 1973-1974. Association, Population Council, New York, 1974-1977. Visiting Scholar,
Office Population Research, Princeton University, 1976-1977.
Research Scholar, System and Decision Sciences, International Institute, Institution Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenberg, Austria, 1977-1982.
Visiting Professor, Food Research Institute, Institution, Stanford University, 1982-1983. Dean and Virginia Morrison Professor Population Studies, Professor of Economics, Stanford University, Food Research Institute, Institution, Stanford, California, United States of America, since 1983.
Association Editor, Theoretical Population Biology.
Early work in optimal control of dynamic systems with an age dimension led to a lasting interest in population and its interactions with the economy. Introduced functional calculus to demography, thereby settling several major open problems in population analysis. Provided simple but rigorous proofs of the two central theorems of population dynamics.
Clarified effect of population growth in overlapping generations models and the effect of population age-structural changes on the economy. First rigorous analysis of the value of altering mortality risks. Detailed study of Bangladesh’s economic development and population interactions (with G. NcNicoll).
Recent research on the theory of economic allocation under increasing returns (decreasing supply costs) introduces probability theory to resolve the indeterminacy issues. Resulting theorems (with Soviet coauthors) generalise deterministic, fixed-point dynamical stability results to stochastic case.