Thomas Schelling is an accomplished Economist now retired from academia. He was the primary influence for the paper and coin model, an experiment he conducted himself and described in chapter four of his book Micromotives and Macrobehavior. He has written 12 books across a variety of topics, including his most famous book the Strategy of Conflict. He was also awarded the 2005 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics(shared with Robert Aumann) for "having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game theory analysis." His work in Micromotives and Macrobehavior helped establish today what is known as Agent Based Modeling which is the method we are using for our model.
Contributions to our work:
First and foremost, the model I created is a modification of Schelling's model from Micromotives and Macrobehavior. Schelling used coins and an 8x8 grid drawn on paper to show how individual level preferences (micromotives) could lead to residential segregation (macrobehavior). While acknowledging that there are many institutional and structural factors involved with residential segregation (which was what he was examining in the chapter with his paper and coin models) he focused on individual level preferences, and how these preferences could lead to unexpected results. Without Schellings work this work would have never come to be.
The creation of model 2, where the agents were randomized was also my attempt to see if my modifications of the rules would lead to a similar outcome as Schelling had found.
My research with Schellings model would then go on to inform and help us construct the computer model.