Abstract
A measure of divergence (NAD) between the distribution of individuals in a community and a target distribution is presented. When the latter is uniform, NAD measures evenness and exhibits a strong correlation with the widely used Shannon index. However, NAD offers the capability to incorporate an arbitrary composition in an economic optimization model where the Shannon index is not applicable. An empirical application to optimum management of a multispecies forest is presented, and the trade-off between ecological and economic objectives is investigated.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1001-1012 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | American Journal of Agricultural Economics |
| Volume | 79 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 1997 |
Keywords
- Absolute deviation
- Diversity
- Forest management
- Optimization
- Shannon index
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous)
- Economics and Econometrics