Strategies of Commitment and Other Essays

by Thomas C. Schelling

All of the essays in this new collection by Thomas Schelling convey his unique perspective on individuals and society. This perspective has several it is strategic in that it assumes that an important part of people's behavior is motivated by the thought of influencing other people's expectations; it views the mind as being separable into two or more parts (rational/irrational; present-minded/future-minded); it is motivated by policy concerns--smoking and other addictions, global warming, segregation, nuclear war; and while it accepts many of the basic assumptions of economics--that people are forward-looking, rational decision makers, that resources are scarce, and that incentives are important--it is open to modifying them when appropriate, and open to the findings and insights of other social science disciplines. Schelling--a 2005 Nobel Prize winner-- has been one of the four or five most important social scientists of the past fifty years, and this collection shows why.

Genres: Essays, Economics

360 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Thomas Crombie Schelling was an American economist and professor of foreign affairs, national security, nuclear strategy, and arms control at the School of Public Policy at University of Maryland, College Park. He is also co-faculty at the New England Complex Systems Institute. He was awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Economics (shared with Robert Aumann) for "having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis."

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nobel Prize winner is one of the most important social scientists of the past 50 years, and this collection shows why. 351 pages.

[Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the essays really interested me, others I skipped. A very sane discussion of global warming. A bit too much of a focus on the definitions of how we were going to talk about commitment and not enough strategies for me.

[Emilysellars]

Schelling is the rare brilliant economist who writes pretty well. While I am enough of a dork to get a kick out of his discussions on commitment devices and preference changes, we should all appreciate that we have Schelling to thank for the movie Dr. Strangelove (as he tells it anyway). Did you think Kubrick came up with the idea of a Doomsday Device (the ultimate commitment device!!) himself?