Normative modeling in demo-economics

This report is an expository state-of-the-art review of several fundamental themes in two related but largely unconnected bodies of literature. The focus is on recent attempts to design comprehensive dynamic demo-economic policy models that are formally stated as optimal control problems. Two groups of models are distinguished: planning-oriented models, which originated in systems engineering and economics and which are designed to aid practical problem solving; and theoretically-oriented models, which have been developed in economic growth theory and which are intended to provide theoretical insights into the dynamics of economic systems. The formalisms of both are shown to have natural applications in demography.