3.10 The Schelling model of segregation

This model is one possible implementation of Thomas Schelling’s simple model of residential segregation. This implementation shows how changing the criterion for how a household decides that a prospective new location is acceptable or not can change the overall outcome quite dramatically. The original papers on this model are:

Schelling TC. 1969. Models of segregation. American Economic Review 59 488–493.

Schelling TC. 1971. Dynamic models of segregation. Journal of Mathematical Sociology 1 143–186.

Schelling TC. 1978. Micromotives and Macrobehavior. Norton, New York.

It has more recently been argued that the model should be more properly referred to as the Sakoda-Schelling model. See:

Hegselmann R. 2017. Thomas C. Schelling and James M. Sakoda: The intellectual, technical, and social history of a model. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 20(3).

Sakoda JM. 1971. The checkerboard model of social interaction. Journal of Mathematical Sociology 1(1): 119–132.