Global attractivity in a delay differential equation with application in a commodity model (Q609967)

The paper is devoted to the study of the nonlinear delay differential equation \[ x'(t)=p(t)x(t)[f(x(t))- g(x(t-\tau))],\quad t\geq 0, \] where \(\tau>0\), \(p\in C([0,\infty), (0,\infty))\) and \(f,g \in C([0,\infty), [0,\infty))\), \(f\) is nonincreasing and \(\int_{t-\tau}^tp(s)\,ds\) is bounded. Moreover, the functions \(f\) and \(g\) satisfy the inequality \[ (x-\bar{x})(f(x)-g(x))<0\text{ for any }x>0,\quad x\neq\bar{x}, \] where \(\bar{x}>0\) is a unique positive equilibrium of the equation. It is proved that every positive solution is bounded and persistent. The main result gives sufficient conditions for the global attractivity of \(\bar{x}\): if all hypotheses assumed above hold, \(\int_0^{\infty}p(s)\,ds=\infty\), \(\int_{t-\tau}^tp(s)\,ds\leq P_0\) for \(t\geq T_0>\tau\) and the function \(G(y)=g(\bar{x}e^y)\) is \(L\)-Lipschitz with \(P_0L<1\), then \(\bar{x}\) is a global attractor. An application to a commodity model is given.