IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/gamebe/v38y2002i2p318-346.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Stability and Segregation in Group Formation

Author

Listed:
  • Milchtaich, Igal
  • Winter, Eyal

Abstract

This paper presents a model of group formation based on the assumption that individuals prefer to associate with people similar to them. It is shown that, in general, if the number of groups that can be formed is bounded, then a stable partition of the society into groups may not exist. A partition is defined as stable if none of the individuals would prefer be in a different group than the one he is in. However, if individuals’ characteristics are one-dimensional, then a stable partition always exists. We give sufficient conditions for stable partitions to be segregating (in the sense that, for example, low-characteristic individuals are in one group and high-characteristic ones are in another) and Pareto efficient. In addition, we propose a dynamic model of individual myopic behavior describing the evolution of group formation to an eventual stable, segregating, and Pareto efficient partition.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Milchtaich, Igal & Winter, Eyal, 2002. "Stability and Segregation in Group Formation," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 318-346, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:gamebe:v:38:y:2002:i:2:p:318-346
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0899-8256(01)90878-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Le Breton, M & Owen, G & Weber, S, 1992. "Strongly Balanced Cooperative Games," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 20(4), pages 419-427.
    2. Westhoff, Frank, 1979. "Policy inferences from community choice models: A caution," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 535-549, October.
    3. repec:adr:anecst:y:1997:i:45:p:09 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Ellickson, Bryan & Grodal, Birgit & Scotchmer, Suzanne & Zame, William R., 2001. "Clubs and the Market: Large Finite Economies," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 101(1), pages 40-77, November.
    5. Bryan Ellickson & Birgit Grodal & Suzanne Scotchmer & William R. Zame, 1999. "Clubs and the Market," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 67(5), pages 1185-1218, September.
    6. Bewley, Truman F, 1981. "A Critique of Tiebout's Theory of Local Public Expenditures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(3), pages 713-740, May.
    7. Karni, Edi & Schmeidler, David, 1990. "Fixed Preferences and Changing Tastes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(2), pages 262-267, May.
    8. Young, H Peyton, 1993. "The Evolution of Conventions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 61(1), pages 57-84, January.
    9. Philippe Jehiel & Suzanne Scotchmer, 1997. "Free Mobility and the Optimal Number of Jurisdictions," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 45, pages 219-231.
    10. Wooders, Myrna, 1980. "The Tiebout Hypothesis: Near Optimality in Local Public Good Economies," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(6), pages 1467-1485, September.
    11. Greenberg Joseph & Weber Shlomo, 1993. "Stable Coalition Structures with a Unidimensional Set of Alternatives," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 62-82, June.
    12. Bogomolnaia, Anna & Jackson, Matthew O., 2002. "The Stability of Hedonic Coalition Structures," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 201-230, February.
    13. Ellickson, Bryan & Grodal, Birgit & Scotchmer, Suzanne & Zame, William R., 2001. "Clubs and the Market: Large Finite Economies," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 101(1), pages 40-77, November.
    14. Tayfun Sönmez & Suryapratim Banerjee & Hideo Konishi, 2001. "Core in a simple coalition formation game," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 18(1), pages 135-153.
    15. Westhoff, Frank, 1977. "Existence of equilibria in economies with a local public good," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 84-112, February.
    16. Konishi, Hideo & Le Breton, Michel & Weber, Shlomo, 1998. "Equilibrium in a Finite Local Public Goods Economy," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 224-244, April.
    17. Kaneko, Mamoru & Wooders, Myrna Holtz, 1982. "Cores of partitioning games," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 313-327, December.
    18. Kaneko, Mamoru & Kimura, Toshiyuki, 1992. "Conventions, social prejudices and discrimination: A festival game with merrymakers," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 511-527, October.
    19. Igal Milchtaich, 1998. "Crowding games are sequentially solvable," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 27(4), pages 501-509.
    20. Bernheim, B. Douglas & Peleg, Bezalel & Whinston, Michael D., 1987. "Coalition-Proof Nash Equilibria I. Concepts," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 1-12, June.
    21. Monderer, Dov & Shapley, Lloyd S., 1996. "Potential Games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 124-143, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Conley, John P. & Konishi, Hideo, 2002. "Migration-proof Tiebout equilibrium: existence and asymptotic efficiency," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 243-262, November.
    2. Allouch, Nizar & Conley, John P. & Wooders, Myrna, 2009. "Anonymous price taking equilibrium in Tiebout economies with a continuum of agents: Existence and characterization," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(9-10), pages 492-510, September.
    3. Alison Watts, 2006. "Formation of Segregated and Integrated Groups," Working Papers 2006.127, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    4. Le Breton, Michel & Weber, Shlomo, 2004. "Group Formation with Heterogeneous Sets," IDEI Working Papers 288, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    5. Ana Mauleon & Nils Roehl & Vincent Vannetelbosch, 2014. "Constitutions and Social Networks," Working Papers Dissertations 02, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    6. Fan‐Chin Kung, 2006. "An Algorithm for Stable and Equitable Coalition Structures with Public Goods," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 8(3), pages 345-355, August.
    7. Hans Gersbach & Hans Haller, 2018. "Power at general equilibrium," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 50(3), pages 425-455, March.
    8. Alison Watts, 2007. "Formation of segregated and integrated groups," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 35(4), pages 505-519, April.
    9. Emiliya Lazarova & Dinko Dimitrov, 2013. "Status-seeking in hedonic games with heterogeneous players," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 40(4), pages 1205-1229, April.
    10. Wooders, Myrna, 2008. "Market games and clubs," MPRA Paper 33968, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Dec 2010.
    11. Nizar Allouch & Myrna Wooders, 2004. "Price Taking Equilibrium in Club Economies with Multiple Memberships and Unbounded Club Sizes," Working Papers 513, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    12. Mauleon, Ana & Roehl, Nils & Vannetelbosch, Vincent, 2018. "Constitutions and groups," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 135-152.
    13. Konishi, Hideo, 2008. "Tiebout's tale in spatial economies: Entrepreneurship, self-selection, and efficiency," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 461-477, September.
    14. Shin‐Kun Peng & Ping Wang, 2005. "Sorting by foot: ‘travel‐for’ local public goods and equilibrium stratification," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(4), pages 1224-1252, November.
    15. Morelli, Massimo & Park, In-Uck, 2016. "Internal hierarchy and stable coalition structures," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 90-96.
    16. Emiliya Lazarova & Dinko Dimitrov, 2010. "Status-Seeking In Coalitional Matching Problems," Economics Working Papers 10-02, Queen's Management School, Queen's University Belfast.
    17. Anna Bogomolnaia & Michel Breton & Alexei Savvateev & Shlomo Weber, 2008. "Stability of jurisdiction structures under the equal share and median rules," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 34(3), pages 525-543, March.
    18. Hans Gersbach & Hans Haller, 2011. "Bargaining cum voice," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 36(2), pages 199-225, February.
    19. Gersbach, Hans & Haller, Hans, 2011. "Groups, collective decisions and markets," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 146(1), pages 275-299, January.
    20. Guillaume Haeringer, 2000. "Stable Coalition Structures with Fixed Decision Schme," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 471.00, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:gamebe:v:38:y:2002:i:2:p:318-346. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.