Residential segregation in an all-integrationist world

This paper presents a variation of the Schelling [J. Math. Sociol. 1 (1971) 143; T.C. Schelling, Micromotives and Macrobehavior, Norton, New York, 1978] model to show that segregation emerges and persists even if every person in the society prefers to live in a half-black, half-white neighborhood. In contrast to Schelling’s inductive approach, we formulate neighborhood transition as a spatial game played on a lattice graph. The model is rigorously analyzed using techniques recently developed in stochastic evolutionary game theory. We derive our primary results mathematically and use agent-based simulations to explore the dynamics of segregation.