Competition between collective and individual dynamics
- 8 December 2009
- journal article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Vol. 106 (49), 20622-20626
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0906263106
Abstract
Linking microscopic and macroscopic behavior is at the heart of many natural and social sciences. This apparent similarity conceals essential differences across disciplines: Although physical particles are assumed to optimize the global energy, economic agents maximize their own utility. Here, we solve exactly a Schelling-like segregation model, which interpolates continuously between cooperative and individual dynamics. We show that increasing the degree of cooperativity induces a qualitative transition from a segregated phase of low utility toward a mixed phase of high utility. By introducing a simple function that links the individual and global levels, we pave the way to a rigorous approach of a wide class of systems, where dynamics are governed by individual strategies.Keywords
This publication has 15 references indexed in Scilit:
- Phase diagram of a Schelling segregation modelZeitschrift für Physik B Condensed Matter, 2009
- Statistical physics of the Schelling model of segregationJournal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment, 2008
- Understanding the social context of the Schelling segregation modelProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2008
- Schelling's spatial proximity model of segregation revisitedJournal of Public Economics, 2007
- A physical analogue of the Schelling modelProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2006
- Nonequilibrium statistical mechanics of the zero-range process and related modelsJournal of Physics A: General Physics, 2005
- Residential segregation in an all-integrationist worldJournal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2004
- Potential GamesGames and Economic Behavior, 1996
- Whom or What Does the Representative Individual Represent?Journal of Economic Perspectives, 1992
- Dynamic models of segregation†The Journal of Mathematical Sociology, 1971