Состоялось очередное заседание научного семинара "Политическая экономика"

Докладчик: Eren Arbatli  (NRU HSE)        
Тема: "Random Encounters in the City: When is Public Space an Opportunity for Social Integration? "

Cities do not only serve as main hubs of economic activity. Oftentimes, they are also high density centers of social interaction and learning both within and among various social and ethnic groups. And yet, cities certainly differ with respect to the extent their residents establish social contacts with each other across socioeconomic, cultural and ethnic lines. I propose a theory of social segregation/integration where public spaces and other urban amenities are the main stages on which inter-group interactions play out. The crucial feature of a public space is that it serves as a publicly available amenity with an intrinsic use-value but also with a potential to bring together residents from different groups and facilitate learning. Under such a setting, I present a dynamic model of inter-group contact in the presence of within-group heterogeneity. Agents of different types try to optimally learn about the out-group's quality in order to make an ex-ante optimal decision to stay on or leave the public space. Average pessimism or optimism about the out-group is the byproduct of this learning, and it may potentially shape inter-group attitudes (e.g. friendship, tolerance, discrimination in work place etc.) in other realms. My analysis shows that when one type ('popular type') is unanimously preferred by all agents, in each group those types that are relatively more optimistic about the out-group, more willing to attend the public space or to interact with the 'popular type' will be over-represented. Which types from each group positively self-select onto the public space has consequences for the duration of contact and stereotype formation.

Заседание состоялось 08.04.2014 в 18.15   по    адресу: г. Москва, улица Шаболовка, дом 26, корпус 4, аудитория 4322.