The Economics of Queues and Waiting
Queues and Waiting: Recap
A recap of the economics of waiting.
This lesson reviews the module.
Concept
Queues ration scarce capacity with time.
Design
Rules, layout and information change waiting and fairness.
Tools
Pricing, technology and planning reduce waits.
Ethics
Selling priority raises equality questions.
Spotting queues
Notice where you wait and ask what is scarce.
Treating waiting as pure waste
It also rations fairly in some cases.
Key takeaways
- Queues ration capacity.
- Rules matter.
- Technology helps.
- Fairness is an issue.
No recording for this one yet - EconReader can read it aloud for you.