Abstract

When allocating scarce goods or services through booking systems, queue-based rules are often considered efficient, as queuing time could signal people's valuation. However, the externality of queuing on other tasks, especially the queuing time that could have been spent on other tasks, is frequently overlooked when people can multi-task. Through a laboratory experiment where participants engage in both a booking system and a production task, we compare a queue-based rule with a lottery-based rule and quantify different sources of efficiency losses under the two rules. Surprisingly, the queue rule does not exhibit higher allocative efficiency than the lottery rule, as participants display bimodal behavior---either fully engaging or not participating in the booking task. We further design a novel dual-track booking system, allowing participants to choose their preferred allocation rule, which partially restores the efficiency loss observed in the pure queue system.

Time

2023-09-15  15:00 - 16:00   

Speaker

Xiao Liu, Tsinghua University

Room

Room 308