The Hindu Business Line : Are you being served?

The other day, I had to spend an agonizingly long time in the queue at the largest public sector bank to pay my daughter’s school fees. More as wishful thinking, I thought that it would be nice if the person who came last is served first! I then discovered that an economist has argued that such a system is socially optimal. How?

Suppose you want to buy a pizza. You walk into this pizza place and find that there are 10 people in the queue. The counter clerk has to spend three minutes with each customer. So, it will be a good 30 minutes before you get to order.

Two options

You can either go back home or wait in the queue. Your choice would depend on how much you like the pizza or how badly you want to avoid having the left-over food at home! There will be many who will go home.

What if the pizza place introduces a new queuing system that places the newcomers at the front? If you arrive just as someone has been served at the counter, you will be attended to immediately. But if there is a flood of newcomers after you arrive, you will be pushed to the back. You will either stand your time or quit and go home.

Waiting time minimised

The nice thing about this system is that the queue will never be long as in the first-come first-serve system. Why? As the newcomers will be served immediately, the early birds will be pushed to the back and may quit and go home.

So, this system will have many who quit and go home just as with the first-come first-serve system. But at least, the waiting time will be minimised.

Professor Refael Hassin at Tel Aviv University has argued that such a system is socially optimal. The system comes with some checks. For instance, the person at the back cannot quit and come back as a newcomer. It does seem perverse to have such a system, but it may be worth trying.

(The author is an investment strategist.)

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