Congestion Information and Eciency: An Experiment

Charles Noussair and Liang Qiao

No 2025-05, Experimental Economics Center Working Paper Series from Experimental Economics Center, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University

Abstract: Users are now typically able to access historical data in traffic, restaurant, and retailing contexts. This availability of information can be viewed as a means to reduce congestion. However, scientific support for this notion is weak. We investigate, using a laboratory experiment, whether an intermediate level of information provision might reduce congestion. We also study how the effect of making more information available changes over time. We show that providing all users with information is counterproductive in the short run. In the long run, users\' behavior adjusts so that providing some or all individuals with information leads to more efficient outcomes than when no information is made available. The incidence of group over-and under-reaction to congestion cost differences is only mildly responsive to the information level, a pattern consistent with Small Sample models, which do not assume sequential adjustment.

Keywords: Coordination Game; Information Use; Information Value; Learning; Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 C92 D83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 84
Date: 2025-07
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:exc:wpaper:2025-05

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