IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/gamebe/v64y2008i2p457-469.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A geometric approach to the price of anarchy in nonatomic congestion games

Author

Listed:
  • Correa, José R.
  • Schulz, Andreas S.
  • Stier-Moses, Nicolás E.

Abstract

We present a short, geometric proof for the price-of-anarchy results that have recently been established in a series of papers on selfish routing in multicommodity flow networks and on nonatomic congestion games. This novel proof also facilitates two new types of theoretical results: On the one hand, we give pseudo-approximation results that depend on the class of allowable cost functions. On the other hand, we derive stronger bounds on the inefficiency of equilibria for situations in which the equilibrium costs are within reasonable limits of the fixed costs. These tighter bounds help to explain empirical observations in vehicular traffic networks. Our analysis holds in the more general context of nonatomic congestion games, which provide the framework in which we describe this work.

Suggested Citation

  • Correa, José R. & Schulz, Andreas S. & Stier-Moses, Nicolás E., 2008. "A geometric approach to the price of anarchy in nonatomic congestion games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 457-469, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:gamebe:v:64:y:2008:i:2:p:457-469
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0899-8256(08)00033-X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. A. de Palma & Y. Nesterov, 1997. "Optimization formulations and static equilibrium in congested transportation networks," THEMA Working Papers 97-17, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    2. Patrice Marcotte & Sang Nguyen & Alexandre Schoeb, 2004. "A Strategic Flow Model of Traffic Assignment in Static Capacitated Networks," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 52(2), pages 191-212, April.
    3. SCHMEIDLER, David, 1973. "Equilibrium points of nonatomic games," LIDAM Reprints CORE 146, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    4. Larsson, Torbjörn & Patriksson, Michael, 1995. "An augmented lagrangean dual algorithm for link capacity side constrained traffic assignment problems," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 433-455, December.
    5. Roughgarden, Tim & Tardos, Eva, 2004. "Bounding the inefficiency of equilibria in nonatomic congestion games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 389-403, May.
    6. José R. Correa & Andreas S. Schulz & Nicolás E. Stier-Moses, 2007. "Fast, Fair, and Efficient Flows in Networks," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 55(2), pages 215-225, April.
    7. José R. Correa & Andreas S. Schulz & Nicolás E. Stier-Moses, 2004. "Selfish Routing in Capacitated Networks," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 961-976, November.
    8. Milchtaich, Igal, 2004. "Social optimality and cooperation in nonatomic congestion games," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 114(1), pages 56-87, January.
    9. Igal Milchtaich, 2000. "Generic Uniqueness of Equilibrium in Large Crowding Games," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 25(3), pages 349-364, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Enxian & Qiao, Lei & Sun, Xiang & Sun, Yeneng, 2022. "Robust perfect equilibrium in large games," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    2. José R. Correa & Andreas S. Schulz & Nicolás E. Stier-Moses, 2004. "Selfish Routing in Capacitated Networks," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 961-976, November.
    3. Luan, Xiaojie & Eikenbroek, Oskar A.L. & Corman, Francesco & van Berkum, Eric C., 2024. "Passenger social rerouting strategies in capacitated public transport systems," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    4. Jacquot, Paulin & Wan, Cheng, 2022. "Nonatomic aggregative games with infinitely many types," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 301(3), pages 1149-1165.
    5. Gaëtan Fournier & Marco Scarsini, 2014. "Hotelling Games on Networks: Efficiency of Equilibria," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 14033, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    6. Cominetti, Roberto & Dose, Valerio & Scarsini, Marco, 2024. "Phase transitions of the price-of-anarchy function in multi-commodity routing games," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    7. Bliemer, Michiel C.J. & Raadsen, Mark P.H. & Smits, Erik-Sander & Zhou, Bojian & Bell, Michael G.H., 2014. "Quasi-dynamic traffic assignment with residual point queues incorporating a first order node model," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 363-384.
    8. Wang, Chenlan & Doan, Xuan Vinh & Chen, Bo, 2014. "Price of anarchy for non-atomic congestion games with stochastic demands," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 90-111.
    9. Zijun Wu & Rolf H. Moehring & Chunying Ren & Dachuan Xu, 2020. "A convergence analysis of the price of anarchy in atomic congestion games," Papers 2007.14769, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2021.
    10. Yasushi Masuda & Akira Tsuji, 2019. "Congestion Control for a System with Parallel Stations and Homogeneous Customers Using Priority Passes," Networks and Spatial Economics, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 293-318, March.
    11. Feng, Zengzhe & Gao, Ziyou & Sun, Huijun, 2014. "Bounding the inefficiency of atomic splittable selfish traffic equilibria with elastic demands," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 31-43.
    12. Riccardo Colini-Baldeschi & Roberto Cominetti & Panayotis Mertikopoulos & Marco Scarsini, 2020. "When Is Selfish Routing Bad? The Price of Anarchy in Light and Heavy Traffic," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 68(2), pages 411-434, March.
    13. Liu, Jiangtao & Zhou, Xuesong, 2016. "Capacitated transit service network design with boundedly rational agents," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 93(PA), pages 225-250.
    14. Nicola Persico & Petra Todd, 2004. "Using Hit Rate Tests to Test for Racial Bias in Law Enforcement: Vehicle Searches in Wichita," NBER Working Papers 10947, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Raimondo, Roberto, 2020. "Pathwise smooth splittable congestion games and inefficiency," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 15-23.
    16. Parilina, Elena & Sedakov, Artem & Zaccour, Georges, 2017. "Price of anarchy in a linear-state stochastic dynamic game," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 258(2), pages 790-800.
    17. Hideo Konishi, 2004. "Uniqueness of User Equilibrium in Transportation Networks with Heterogeneous Commuters," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(3), pages 315-330, August.
    18. José R. Correa & Nicolás Figueroa & Nicolás E. Stier-Moses, 2008. "Pricing with markups in industries with increasing marginal costs," Documentos de Trabajo 256, Centro de Economía Aplicada, Universidad de Chile.
    19. Carmona, Guilherme & Podczeck, Konrad, 2014. "Existence of Nash equilibrium in games with a measure space of players and discontinuous payoff functions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 130-178.
    20. Roberto Cominetti & José R. Correa & Nicolás E. Stier-Moses, 2009. "The Impact of Oligopolistic Competition in Networks," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 57(6), pages 1421-1437, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:gamebe:v:64:y:2008:i:2:p:457-469. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.