Vasco Alves | University of Birmingham (original) (raw)

Papers by Vasco Alves

Journal of Applied Economics

This paper describes a duopoly market for healthcare where one of the two providers is publicly o... more This paper describes a duopoly market for healthcare where one of the two providers is publicly owned and charges a price of zero, while the other sets a price so as to maximize its profit. Both providers are subject to congestion in the form of an M/M/1 queue, and they serve patient-consumers who have randomly distributed unit costs of time. Consumer demand (as market share) for both providers is obtained and described. The private provider's pricing decision is explored, equilibrium existence is proven, and conditions for uniqueness presented. Comparative statics for demand are presented. Social welfare functions are described and the welfare maximizing condition obtained. More detailed results are then obtained for cases when costs follow uniform and Kumaraswamy distributions. Numerical simulations are then performed for these distributions, employing several parameter values, demonstrating the private provider's pricing decision and its relationship with social welfare.

4OR

This paper presents a model for the endogenous determination of the number of queues in a G/M/s s... more This paper presents a model for the endogenous determination of the number of queues in a G/M/s system. Customers arriving at a system where s customers are being served play a game, choosing between s parallel queues or one single queue. Equilibria are obtained for risk-neutral and risk-averse customers. With risk-neutral customers, both a single queue and multiple queues are equilibrium states. When risk-averse customers are considered, there is a unique single queue equilibrium. These results are discussed and suggestions for further research put forth.

This thesis includes three essays exploring some economic implications of queueing. A preliminary... more This thesis includes three essays exploring some economic implications of queueing. A preliminary chapter introducing useful results from the literature which help contextualize the original research in the thesis is presented first. This introductory chapter starts by surveying queueing results from probability theory and operations research. Then it covers a few seminal papers on strategic queueing, mostly but not exclusively from the economics literature. These cover issues of individual and social welfare in the context of First Come First Served (FCFS) and Equitable Processor Sharing (EPS) queues, with one or multiple servers, as well as a discussion of strategic interactions surrounding queue cutting. Then an overview of some important papers on the impact of queueing on competitive behaviour, mostly Industrial Organization economists, is presented. The first original chapter presents a model for the endogenous determination of the number of queues in an M/M/2 system. Customer...

This paper analyses the individual decisions taken by consumers when deciding whether to join an ... more This paper analyses the individual decisions taken by consumers when deciding whether to join an M/M/1 queue where consumers can both cut the queue and be overtaken once they join. This is shown to be an equilibrium in repeated games for sufficiently patient customers. The expected sojourn time for customers under this discipline is described as a solution of a system of difference equations, and this is then used to obtain a threshold joining strategy for arrivals. Numerical methods are then employed to contrast sojourn times, thresholds and welfare with the equilibria for strict First Come First Served and Equitable Processor Sharing queueing disciplines, and with the socially optimal joining rule.

Journal of Applied Economics, 2019

This paper describes a duopoly market for healthcare where one of the two providers is publicly o... more This paper describes a duopoly market for healthcare where one of the two providers is publicly owned and charges a price of zero, while the other sets a price so as to maximize its profit. Both providers are subject to congestion in the form of an M/M/1 queue, and they serve patient-consumers who have randomly distributed unit costs of time. Consumer demand (as market share) for both providers is obtained and described. The private provider’s pricing decision is explored, equilibrium existence is proven, and conditions for uniqueness presented. Comparative statics for demand are presented. Social welfare functions are described and the welfare maximizing condition obtained. More detailed results are then obtained for cases when costs follow uniform and Kumaraswamy distributions. Numerical simulations are then performed for these distributions, employing several parameter values, demonstrating the private provider’s pricing decision and its relationship with social welfare.

4OR, 2020

Journal of Applied Economics

4OR

Journal of Applied Economics, 2019

This paper describes a duopoly market for healthcare where one of the two providers is publicly o... more This paper describes a duopoly market for healthcare where one of the two providers is publicly owned and charges a price of zero, while the other sets a price so as to maximize its profit. Both providers are subject to congestion in the form of an M/M/1 queue, and they serve patient-consumers who have randomly distributed unit costs of time. Consumer demand (as market share) for both providers is obtained and described. The private provider’s pricing decision is explored, equilibrium existence is proven, and conditions for uniqueness presented. Comparative statics for demand are presented. Social welfare functions are described and the welfare maximizing condition obtained. More detailed results are then obtained for cases when costs follow uniform and Kumaraswamy distributions. Numerical simulations are then performed for these distributions, employing several parameter values, demonstrating the private provider’s pricing decision and its relationship with social welfare.

4OR, 2020