Abstract
The Schelling model of segregation is an agent-based model that illustrates how individual tendencies regarding neighbors can lead to segregation. The model is especially useful for the study of residential segregation of ethnic groups where agents represent householders who relocate in the city. In the model, each agent belongs to one of two groups and aims to reside within a neighborhood where the fraction of 'friends' is sufficiently high: above a predefined tolerance threshold value F. It is known that depending on F, for groups of equal size, Schelling's residential pattern converges to either complete integration (a random-like pattern) or segregation. The study of high-resolution ethnic residential patterns of Israeli cities reveals that reality is more complicated than this simple integration-segregation dichotomy: some neighborhoods are ethnically homogeneous while others are populated by both groups in varying ratios. In this study, we explore whether the Schelling model can reproduce such patterns. We investigate the model's dynamics in terms of dependence on group-specific tolerance thresholds and on the ratio of the size of the two groups. We reveal new type of model pattern in which a portion of one group segregates while another portion remains integrated with the second group. We compare the characteristics of these new patterns to the pattern of real cities and discuss the differences.
Highlights
1.1 The Schelling model of segregation (Schelling 1971, 1978) is one of the earliest agent-based models of social science
2.16 In this paper, we investigate two alterations of the standard assumptions: we study Schelling model dynamics in the case of non-equal groups and non-equal tolerance thresholds of the groups
5.1 Our version of the Schelling model is based on two qualitative assumptions: first, agents are satisficers, i.e., they do not distinguish between locations where the number of friends is above their tolerance threshold; second, the relocation rules allow satisfied agents to migrate between vacancies of the same utility
Summary
1.1 The Schelling model of segregation (Schelling 1971, 1978) is one of the earliest agent-based models of social science. 1.7 We consider the residential pattern of Arab Muslims, Arab Christians and Jews in the cities of Yaffo and Ramle, both of which are located in central Israel. 1.8 The ethnic residential pattern of the city of Ramle is presented in Figure 3 and is more complex than Yaffo. 1.9 Yaffo and Ramle patterns are essentially more variable than the integrated and segregated patterns characteristic of the Schelling model: the pattern contains homogeneous patches of Arab and Jewish populations and several integrated areas with different fractions of Arab and Jewish populations in each. 1.13 In this paper, we demonstrate that the variety of Schelling model patterns is greater than the random-segregated dichotomy and that the patterns in Figures 4a and 4b, can be generated by the model if the numbers of two groups or group tolerance thresholds are different.
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