Information and Usage of Congestible Facilities Under Free Access

Richard Arnott

No 974, Discussion Papers from Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science

Abstract: We investigate the effect of information about congestion on participation and time-of-use decisions in a free-access delay system subject to predictable and unpredictable fluctuations in capacity and demand intensity. Expected welfare is greater with perfect than with zero information, while optimal design capacity is greater if and only if demand elasticity is less than one. Imperfect information can reduce welfare by inducting concentration in the arrival time of users at the facility. This suggests that route guidance systems for automobile travel and other public information dissemination schemes must be designed and implemented with care.

Date: 1992-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/research/math/papers/974.pdf main text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nwu:cmsems:974

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers from Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science, Northwestern University, 580 Jacobs Center, 2001 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208-2014. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Fran Walker ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).