Three-dimensional discrete-time Lotka–Volterra models with an application to industrial clusters

We consider a three-dimensional discrete dynamical system that describes an application to economics of a generalization of the Lotka–Volterra prey–predator model. The dynamic model proposed is used to describe the interactions among industrial clusters (or districts), following a suggestion given by [23]. After studying some local and global properties and bifurcations in bidimensional Lotka–Volterra maps, by numerical explorations we show how some of them can be extended to their three-dimensional counterparts, even if their analytic and geometric characterization becomes much more difficult and challenging. We also show a global bifurcation of the three-dimensional system that has no two-dimensional analogue. Besides the particular economic application considered, the study of the discrete version of Lotka–Volterra dynamical systems turns out to be a quite rich and interesting topic by itself, i.e. from a purely mathematical point of view.