Micromotives and Macrobehavior.

Before Freakonomics and The Tipping Point there was this classic by the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Economics. "Schelling here offers an early analysis of 'tipping' in social situations involving a large number of individuals" (Citation for the 2005 Nobel Prize). Micromotives and Macrobehavior was originally published over thirty-five years ago, yet the stories it tells feel just as fresh today. And the subject of these stories―how small and seemingly meaningless decisions and actions by individuals often lead to significant unintended consequences for a large group―is more important than ever. In one famous example, Thomas C. Schelling shows that a slight-but-not-malicious preference to have neighbors of the same race eventually leads to completely segregated populations.transformed the way many economists think about the relationship between competition and social welfare" (Robert H. Frank, New York Times).