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The El Farol Problem and the Internet: Congestion and Coordination Failure

Author

Listed:
  • Ann M. Bell

    (Caelum Research)

  • William A. Sethares

    (University of Wisconsin, Madison)

Abstract

The El Farol or bar attendance problem provides a simple paradigm for analyzing public goods like the Internet, which may simultaneously suffer from congestion and coordination problems. This paper reviews the El Farol problem and surveys previous solutions, which typically involve complex learning algorithms. A simple adaptive strategy is proposed, and the strategy is investigated by simulation. The algorithm is analyzed in a few simple cases.

Suggested Citation

  • Ann M. Bell & William A. Sethares, 1999. "The El Farol Problem and the Internet: Congestion and Coordination Failure," Computing in Economics and Finance 1999 812, Society for Computational Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:sce:scecf9:812
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    Cited by:

    1. Shu-Heng Chen & Umberto Gostoli, 2017. "Coordination in the El Farol Bar problem: The role of social preferences and social networks," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 12(1), pages 59-93, April.
    2. Duncan Whitehead, 2008. "The El Farol Bar Problem Revisited: Reinforcement Learning in a Potential Game," Edinburgh School of Economics Discussion Paper Series 186, Edinburgh School of Economics, University of Edinburgh.
    3. Shu-Heng Chen & Umberto Gostoli, 2011. "Agent-Based Modeling of the El Farol Bar Problem," ASSRU Discussion Papers 1120, ASSRU - Algorithmic Social Science Research Unit.

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