Parameter estimation in nonlinear age-dependent population dynamics

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