Subject: Endogenous Model

Posted by Janice Hansel on 11/24/2011
In Reply To:Endogenous Model Posted by George Richardson on 11/24/2011

Message:

Jaime et al,

Perhaps the confusion for the non-expert lay in the how one should go about defining the boundaries of a problem or system. If boundaries are defined so that they include the relevant policies, factors, issues, etc., then the solutions would be endogenous by definition.

It is easy to design a system boundary (incorrectly) that excludes important factors and then suppose those excluded factors to be exogenous. This may look like a semantic issue but it is actually an issue of how to define boundaries using system dynamics to understand what is actually happening in the system.

I believe that much of my early confusion in trying to understand system dynamics came from defining the system too narrowly. Fully complex systems are difficult to define which may lead to placing some of the factors outside of the defined system and calling these factors "the environment."

I hope this helps your understanding, Jaime. I am certainly not an expert on system dynamics but sometimes it takes a non-expert to see why things are confusing to the non-expert.

Janice Hansel

Follow Ups:

Endogenous Model - Niall Palfreyman 11/25/2011 
Endogenous Model - Jaimie Cloud 11/28/2011