Priorities

Priorities are often used in queueing systems as a mechanism for service allocation. By carefully selecting an appropriate system of priorities, both social welfare and profits can be increased.1 This chapter also considers models where customers purchase priority. The rationale behind purchasing priority is twofold: priority enables overtaking ordinary customers who are present upon arrival, and it avoids being overtaken by later-to-arrive priority customers. The latter reason means that as more customers purchase priority, the more inclined an individual should be to do so himself in any given state. In other words, this is an FTC situation.