Thomas C. Schelling (1984), American Economic Review 74(2):1–11 (Papers and
Proceedings, May 1984; the Richard T. Ely Lecture). Reprinted in Schelling,
Strategies of Commitment and Other Essays, Harvard University Press, 2006,
pp. 63–81 — DOI-10.2307/j.ctv1dv0tg9.8. The AER printing has no DOI, so the
reprint’s chapter DOI is carried as the citable identifier and the RePEc
record of the original as the URL. published: is the first of the issue’s
month.
Key takeaways
Not read. Nothing is said here about what the lecture argues beyond its title.
Standing in the record
Filed on 2026-10-03 at the owner’s request, for the record’s coverage of self-control, as the work the owner named for Schelling. Its content is not described here, because it was not read.
What the record holds instead is Schelling’s own earlier essay on the same subject, “The Intimate Contest for Self-Command” (The Public Interest, Summer 1980), freely published by National Affairs and read in full as LIT-602. It proposes “egonomics” and lays out the two-selves picture, the tactics of self-management, and the authenticity problem. The title of this lecture adds two things that essay does not do: questions of policy, and a theory of rational choice. A reading of the lecture would show whether those additions change what the record takes from Schelling.
No instruction for machine-learning practice; nothing here belongs in the anthology.