Entry Times in Queues with Endogenous Arrivals: Dynamics of Play on the Individual and Aggregate Levels

Abstract

This chapter considers arrival time and staying out decisions in several variants of a queueing game characterized by endogenously determined arrival times, simultaneous play, finite populations of symmetric players, discrete strategy spaces, and fixed starting and closing times of the service facility. Experimental results show 1) consistent patterns of behavior on the aggregate level in all the conditions that are accounted for quite well by the symmetric mixed-strategy equilibrium of the stage game, 2) considerable individual differences in arrival time distributions that defy classification, and 3) learning trends across iterations of the stage queueing game in some of the experimental conditions. We propose and subsequently test a simple reinforcement-based learning model that, with a few exceptions, accounts for these major findings.