| Abstract: | We argue that congestion, when it affects the consumption of a commodity, ought to be measured by the product of the number of trips made to a seller and consumption per visit. When intensity of consumption is measured this way, uniform entry fees, the most common way of pricing congested goods, become nonoptimal. A strict user charge can be Pareto efficient. If a uniform entry fee is practiced, we present a model along with experimental data from diverse species subject groups that show consumers reduce visits and consume more per visit; this behavior may intensify the congestion problem. |
