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The curse of the first-in–first-out queue discipline

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  • Platz, Trine Tornøe
  • Østerdal, Lars Peter

Abstract

We consider a game in which a large number of identical agents choose when to queue up at a single server after it opens. Agents are impatient for service and also incur a cost proportional to time spent in the queue. We show that the first-in–first-out queue discipline and the last-in–first-out queue discipline both lead to a unique equilibrium arrival distribution. However, among all work-conserving queue disciplines, the first-in–first-out performs the worst in terms of equilibrium utility and welfare, while the last-in–first-out performs the best.

Suggested Citation

  • Platz, Trine Tornøe & Østerdal, Lars Peter, 2017. "The curse of the first-in–first-out queue discipline," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 165-176.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:gamebe:v:104:y:2017:i:c:p:165-176
    DOI: 10.1016/j.geb.2017.03.004
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    1. André de Palma & Robin Lindsey & Emile Quinet & Roger Vickerman (ed.), 2011. "A Handbook of Transport Economics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12679.
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. [経済]FIFOは最悪、LIFOがベスト
      by himaginary in himaginaryの日記 on 2012-06-14 12:00:00
    2. Why LIFO beats FIFO
      by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2012-06-14 19:10:00

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Breinbjerg, Jesper & Østerdal, Lars Peter, 2017. "Equilibrium Arrival Times to Queues: The Case of Last-Come First-Serve Preemptive-Resume," Discussion Papers on Economics 3/2017, University of Southern Denmark, Department of Economics.
    2. Jesper Breinbjerg & Alexander Sebald & Lars Peter Østerdal, 2016. "Strategic behavior and social outcomes in a bottleneck queue: experimental evidence," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 20(3), pages 207-236, September.
    3. Lingbo Huang & Tracy Xiao Liu & Jun Zhang, 2023. "Born to wait? A study on allocation rules in booking systems," Discussion Papers 2023-04, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    4. Moshe Haviv & Liron Ravner, 2021. "A survey of queueing systems with strategic timing of arrivals," Queueing Systems: Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 99(1), pages 163-198, October.
    5. Breinbjerg, Jesper, 2016. "Strategic Arrival Times to Queueing Systems," Discussion Papers on Economics 6/2016, University of Southern Denmark, Department of Economics.
    6. Baccara, Mariagiovanna & Lee, SangMok & Yariv, Leeat, 2020. "Optimal dynamic matching," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 15(3), July.
    7. Breinbjerg, Jesper & Platz, Trine Tornøe & Østerdal, Lars Peter, 2020. "Equilibrium Arrivals to a Last-come First-served Preemptive-resume Queue," Working Papers 17-2020, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Economics.
    8. Breinbjerg, Jesper, 2017. "Equilibrium arrival times to queues with general service times and non-linear utility functions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 261(2), pages 595-605.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Queue discipline; Nash equilibrium; FIFO; LIFO; Welfare; Congestion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise

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