Parameter estimation in nonlinear age-dependent population dynamics

Abstract

This paper studies a parameter estimation problem for the Gurtin-MacCamy equation, which is a nonlinear model of age-dependent population dynamics. In estimating parameters such as the death rate and the fertility which depend on the age and the total population from a set of fully discrete observations of the population, we use a backward finite-difference scheme. The function-space parameter estimation convergence (FSPEC) of this scheme is proved and numerical simulations are performed.