The spectral radius of a product of nonnegative matrices (Q923666)

The authors investigate upper and lower bounds of the ratio of the spectral radius of the product of a finite number of nonnegative square matrices with each having a positive Perron right eigenvector to the product of the separate spectral radii of the matrices. The question of such bounds arose from some problems in mathematical demography. Separate questions about the invariance under a variety of transformations, eigenvectors with some zero components, the special case of two matrices, and the case of equality of the two bounds are investigated in detail.