This volume develops a set of fresh decision-making protocols for consumers and suppliers alike that reflect two distinct features of congestion-prone services, namely the discrepancy between capacity and throughput, and service quality competition.

This study presents new microeconomic analyses of congestion-prone services that comprise most private and public services at the final consumption stage. It accounts for two distinctive features of congestion-prone services: the discrepancy between capacity and throughput, and service quality competition. To accommodate these features, a series of new decision-making theorems for consumers and suppliers is developed. The resulting demand and cost functions incorporate service time as the variable that reflects congestion and service quality. In market equilibrium, interactions between...