CONVEXITY AND ELASTICITY OF THE GROWTH RATE IN SIZE-CLASSIFIED POPULATION MODELS.

This paper investigates both the convexity and elasticity of the growth rate of size-classsified population models. For an irreducible population projection matrix, we discuss the convexity properties of its Perron eigenvalue under perturbation of the vital rates, extending work of Kirkland and Neumann on Leslie matrices. We also provide nonnegative attainable lower bounds on the derivatives of the elasticity of the Perron eigenvalue under perturbation of the vital rates, sharpening, in the context of population projection matrices, the main result of Kirkland, Neumann, Ormes, and Xu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]