Modelling the Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries with frugal machine learning

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Vrizzi, Stefano, O'Neill, Daniel W.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Vrizzi, Stefano
O'Neill, Daniel W.
author_facet Vrizzi, Stefano
O'Neill, Daniel W.
contents The 'Doughnut' of social and planetary boundaries has emerged as a popular framework for assessing environmental and social sustainability. Here, we provide a proof-of-concept analysis that shows how machine learning (ML) methods can be applied to a simple macroeconomic model of the Doughnut. First, we show how ML methods can be used to find policy parameters that are consistent with 'living within the Doughnut'. Second, we show how a reinforcement learning agent can identify the optimal trajectory towards desired policies in the parameter space. The approaches we test, which include a Random Forest Classifier and $Q$-learning, are frugal ML methods that are able to find policy parameter combinations that achieve both environmental and social sustainability. The next step is the application of these methods to a more complex ecological macroeconomic model.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_02200
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Modelling the Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries with frugal machine learning
Vrizzi, Stefano
O'Neill, Daniel W.
Machine Learning
General Economics
Economics
The 'Doughnut' of social and planetary boundaries has emerged as a popular framework for assessing environmental and social sustainability. Here, we provide a proof-of-concept analysis that shows how machine learning (ML) methods can be applied to a simple macroeconomic model of the Doughnut. First, we show how ML methods can be used to find policy parameters that are consistent with 'living within the Doughnut'. Second, we show how a reinforcement learning agent can identify the optimal trajectory towards desired policies in the parameter space. The approaches we test, which include a Random Forest Classifier and $Q$-learning, are frugal ML methods that are able to find policy parameter combinations that achieve both environmental and social sustainability. The next step is the application of these methods to a more complex ecological macroeconomic model.
title Modelling the Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries with frugal machine learning
topic Machine Learning
General Economics
Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.02200