Dynamic models of residential segregation: brief review, analytical resolution and study of the introduction of coordination

TL;DR

This paper reviews Schelling's dynamic segregation models, provides an analytical solution for the most general form, and analyzes interventions to reduce segregation, deepening understanding of residential segregation dynamics.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive review, an original analytical solution for general models, and an analysis of segregation-reducing interventions.

Findings

Analytical solution for the general model of segregation

Insights into how interventions can decrease segregation

Enhanced understanding of dynamic segregation processes

Abstract

In his 1971's Dynamic Models of Segregation paper, the economist Thomas C. Schelling showed that a small preference for one's neighbors to be of the same color could lead to total segregation, even if total segregation does not correspond to individual preferences and to a residential configuration maximizing the collective utility. The present work is aimed at deepening the understanding of the properties of dynamic models of segregation based on Schelling's hypotheses. Its main contributions are (i) to offer a comprehensive and up-to-date review of this family of models; (ii) to provide an analytical solution to the most general form of this model under rather general assumptions; to the best of our knowledge, such a solution did not exist so far; (iii) to analyse the effect of two devices aimed at decreasing segregation in such a model.