Thomas Schelling

Infobox Scientist
name = Thomas Schelling

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caption = Lecturing at Sharif University of Technology
birth_date = birth date|1921|04|14|df=yes
birth_place = Oakland California, USA
nationality = United States
field = Economics
work_places =
alma_mater =
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students =
known_for =
prizes = Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2005)

Thomas Crombie Schelling (born 14 April 1921) is an American economist and professor of foreign affairs, national security, nuclear strategy, and arms control at the School of Public Policy at University of Maryland, College Park. He was awarded the 2005 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (shared with Robert Aumann) for "having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis."

Schelling received his bachelor's degree in economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1944. He received his PhD in economics from Harvard University in 1951.

He served with the Marshall Plan in Europe, the White House, and the Executive Office of the President from 1948 to 1953. He wrote most of his dissertation on national income behavior working at night while in Europe. He left government to join the economics faculty at Yale University, and in 1958 he was appointed Professor of Economics at Harvard. In 1969 he joined the Kennedy School at Harvard University.

Schelling's most famous book, "The Strategy of Conflict" (1960), has pioneered the study of bargaining and strategic behavior and is considered one of the hundred books that have been most influential in the West since 1945.Fact|date=November 2007 In this book he introduced the concept of the focal point, now commonly called the Schelling point.

Schelling's economic theories about war were extended in "Arms and Influence" (1966).

In 1971, he published a widely cited article dealing with racial dynamics called "Models of Segregation". In this paper he showed that a small preference for one's neighbors to be of the same color could lead to total segregation. He used coins on graph paper to demonstrate his theory by placing pennies and nickels in different patterns on the "board" and then moving them one by one if they were in an "unhappy" situation. The positive feedback cycle of segregation - prejudice - in-group preference can be found in most human populations, with great variation in what are regarded as meaningful differencesndash gender, age, race, ethnicity, language, sexual preference, religion, etc. Once a cycle of separation-prejudice-discrimination-separation has begun, it has a self-sustaining momentum.

Schelling has been involved in the global warming debate since chairing a commission for President Carter in 1980. He believes climate change poses a serious threat to developing nations, but that the threat to the United States has been exaggerated. Drawing on his experience with the post-war Marshall Plan, he has argued that addressing global warming is a bargaining problem: if the world is able to reduce emissions, poor countries will receive most of the benefits but rich countries will bear most of the costs.

Dr. Schelling previously taught for twenty years at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he was the Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Political Economy, as well as conducted research at IIASA, in Laxenburg, Austria between 1994 and 1999.

Schelling was one of the experts who participated in the Copenhagen Consensus.

ee also

* precommitment
* internality
* egonomics
* Schelling features in the recent BBC TV series The Trap.
* Vicarious problem solving

Bibliography

* [http://necsi.org/faculty/schellingpublications.pdf Official bibliography from Thomas Schelling's University webpages (.pdf)]
* [http://web.cenet.org.cn/web/complexity/index.php3?file=detail.php3&nowdir=&id=76520 A list of articles by Thomas Schelling which may be accessed through JSTOR]

External links

* [http://nobelprize.org/economics/laureates/2005/index.html Nobel Prize Announcement]
* [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2005/schelling-lecture.html Schelling Nobel Prize Lecture]
* [http://ideas.repec.org/e/psc152.html IDEAS/RePEc]

* [http://timharford.com/2005/12/lunch-with-the-ft-thomas-schelling-and-the-game-of-life/ "The Game of Life"] - Financial Times Interview, December 17 2005.
* [http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2005/10/schelling_and_a_1.html "Thomas Schelling, new Nobel Laureate"] by Tyler Cowen, a former student of Thomas Schelling, "The Marginal revolution" weblog, October 10, 2005.
* [http://www.econjournalwatch.org/pdf/KleinetalWatchpadApril2005.pdf "Salute to Schelling: Keeping it Human"] by Dan Klein, Tyler Cowen, and Timur Kuran, "Econ Journal Watch", April 2005.
* [http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Thomas_Schelling Article on Thomas Schelling in "Sourcewatch"]
*"Foreign Affairs" [http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20020501facomment8138/thomas-c-schelling/what-makes-greenhouse-sense.html article by Schelling on Global Warming]
* [http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/GreenhouseEffect.html "Greenhouse effect"] by Thomas Schelling, "The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics".
* [http://timharford.com/2005/10/how-an-economic-theory-beat-the-atomic-bomb/ How an economic theory beat the atomic bomb] by Tim Harford, "Financial Times", 12 October 2005.
* [http://www.slate.com/id/2127862/ "All Pain, No Gain: Nobel laureate Thomas Schelling's little-known role in the Vietnam War"] by Fred Kaplan, "Slate", 11 October 2005.
* [http://www.richmondfed.org/publications/economic_research/region_focus/spring_2005/interview.cfm Extensive interview from early 2005] , Richmond Federal Reserve.
* [http://www.economicsbulletin.uiuc.edu/2005/volume2/EB-05B20001A.pdf An interview with Thomas C. Schelling: Interpretation of game theory and the checkerboard model] by N. Emrah Aydınonat, "Economics Bulletin", October 20, 2005.
* [http://www.digitalnpq.org/articles/nobel/29/10-27-2005/thomas_c._schelling "Iranian Use of Nuclear Weapon on Israel would be Suicide Bomb"] , Interview with Nathan Gardels, "Nobel Laureates Plus", 27 October 2005.
* [http://www.simson.net/ref/1972/Schelling_Hockey_Helmets.pdf "Hockey Helmets, Concealed Weapons, and Daylight Saving: A Study of Binary Choices with Externalities" (.pdf)] by Thomas C. Schelling, "The Journal of Conflict Resolution", t. XVII, N° 3, September 1973.
* [http://www.tannerlectures.utah.edu/lectures/schelling83.pdf "Ethics, Law, and the Exercise of Self-Command" .(pdf)] , by Thomas Schelling, "The Tanner Lectures on Human Values", University of Michigan, March 19 - 21, 1982.
* [http://www.jpscanlan.com/images/Facing_the_Paradox_of_Deterrenc.pdf "Facing the Paradox of Deterrence" (.pdf)] , by James P. Scanlan, "The Midwest Quarterly", Vol. XXIX, No.1, Fall 1987.
* [http://www.puaf.umd.edu/IPPP/Summer00/legacy_of_hiroshima.htm "The Legacy of Hiroshima: A Half-Century Without Nuclear War"] by Thomas Schelling, "The Key Reporter", Phi Beta Kappa Society, Vol. 65, No. 3, Spring 2000.
* [http://tecfa.unige.ch/perso/staf/nova/blog/archives/000350.html "Schelling's Focal Point"] , by Nicolas Nova, "Pasta and vinegar" weblog, September 18, 2003.
* [http://www.cato.org/realaudio/conf-12-12-03-3.ram "How Should We Handle Uncertainty?" (RealVideo, after 52 mn and 40 s)] , Debate at the "Cato Institute" on [http://www.cato.org/events/gw031212.html "Global warning: the State of the Debate"] , Thomas C. Schelling, after Robert Lempert, Indur Goklany and Peter Van Doren, December 12, 2003.
* [http://armsandinfluence.typepad.com/armsandinfluence/2004/04/meet_thomas_sch.html "Arms and Influence: Meet Thomas Schelling"] "Arms and Influence" weblog, April 18, 2004.
* [http://www.econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/demos/schelling/schellhp.htm The Schelling Segregation Model Demonstration Software] by [mailto:[e-mail] Chris Cook] — "Windows" compatible software, December 8, 2004.
* Chris McGreal. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1664215,00.html Calls grow for withdrawal of Nobel prize] , "Guardian", December 10, 2005.
* [http://www.ajjp.org/campaigns/signStatement.php?cid=2 No Nobel Prizes for warmongers!] , Petition to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, December 2005.