Benjamin Gompertz

Benjamin Gompertz (March_5. 1779 - July_14, 1865, London, England), was a self educated mathematician, denied admission to university on account of his being Jewish. Nevertheless he was made Fellow of the Royal Society from 1819. Gompertz is today mostly known for his Gompertz's law of mortality , a demographic model published in 1825. The model can be written in this way:

$N'(t) = -r N(t) \log \left( \frac {N(t)}{K} \right)\,$

where $N (t)$ represents number of individuals at time t, r the intrinsic growth rate and K number of individuals in equilibrium.

This model is a refinement of the demographic model of Malthus. It was used by insurance companies to calculate the cost of life insurance.

Gompertz's descendent Simon Gompertz is an economics presenter for the BBC.

References

Gompertz, B., (1825). On the Nature of the Function Expressive of the Law of Human Mortality, and on a New Mode of Determining the Value of Life Contingencies. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London 123, pp: 513-585. 1825.

Last updated: 10-19-2005 07:24:56