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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Schelling say people feel in a "bounded-neighborhood" model?

2. What does Schelling say a proposition has to have in order to be true?

3. What does Schelling say is important in economics?

4. What does Schelling say governs each decision?

5. What is the first thing Schelling says a social behavior model can be?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the key factor in the critical-mass model?

2. What natural preference does Schelling say leads to segregation of populations in American cities?

3. What distinction does Schelling draw between decisions other people have made?

4. What is the lemons model?

5. What does Schelling say segregation and separation, sharing and mixing have in common?

6. What is an unconditional preference?

7. What are the nine ways Schelling describes by which propositions can be constrained successfully?

8. According to Schelling, what is not included in his model of integration and segregation?

9. How does Schelling use mathematical formulations to express his economic models of behavior?

10. What are discrete variables and continuous variables?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a detailed review of Micromotives and Macrobehavior. What are the book's main themes and preoccupations? What are its methods? How does it achieve its intentions? Where does it fail to?

Essay Topic 2

Schelling describes underlying assumptions as being difficult to account for in economic models of social behavior. What methods does Schelling use for making this accounting, and where does his social science begin to need psychological language for unconscious behaviors? In other words, what behaviors do Schelling's models still fail to account for, and is there a point beyond which these economic models cannot go, in estimating individual behavior or accounting for micromotives behind macrobehavior? Will there always be an ultimate 'theory of no guarantees' behind the models?

Essay Topic 3

What institutions or roles is the social scientist playing by analyzing, predicting and trying to influence human behavior? Is the social scientist a preacher, engineer, or artist? What roles does he take, and how is the social scientist different? Cite examples from the book as you make your answer.

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