Optimizing the Social Cost of Congestion Games by Imposing Variable Delays

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel coordination mechanism for non-atomic congestion games that significantly reduces social costs without additional tolls, approaching optimal efficiency.

Contribution

It proposes a new mechanism that aligns selfish behavior with social optimality in congestion games without extra costs like tolls.

Findings

Social cost can be minimized arbitrarily close to optimal

Mechanism does not require additional tolls or costs

Achieves near-optimal social cost in congestion games

Abstract

We describe a new coordination mechanism for non-atomic congestion games that leads to a (selfish) social cost which is arbitrarily close to the non-selfish optimal. This mechanism does not incur any additional extra cost, like tolls, which are usually differentiated from the social cost as expressed in terms of delays only.