Abstract
Thomas Schelling has contributed path-breaking works to the study of coordination problems, group behaviour, and self-control. Early in his career, he framed the Cold War as a game in which parties have a mutual interest in coordinating their actions through a ‘focal point’. Later he explained how, in the absence of racism, racial segregation may be triggered by a ‘tipping’ process through which residential homogenization feeds on itself. His latest major insight has been that addictions stem from an inability to reconcile conflicting inner drives.
Keywords
- Addiction
- Critical mass
- Focal point
- Game theory
- Multiple equilibria
- Network models
- Prisoner’s dilemma
- Residential segregation
- Schelling, T. C.
- Self-control
- Subgame perfection
- Tipping
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Ayson, R. 2004. Thomas Schelling and the nuclear age. London: Frank Cass.
Swedberg, R. 1990. Thomas C. Schelling. In Economics and sociology. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Zeckhauser, R. 1989. Distinguished fellow: Reflections on Thomas Schelling. Journal of Economic Perspectives 3(2): 153–164.
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Kuran, T. (2018). Schelling, Thomas C. (Born 1921). In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2414
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2414
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95188-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95189-5
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