Securitizing congestion: The congestion call option

Abstract: We introduce the idea of a European-type congestion call option to value commuting to work along a given path for a given departure time selected by automobile drivers who are modeled as Cournot–Nash non-cooperative agents competing for limited roadway capacity when the alternative of telecommuting exists. We show how to compute flow patterns based on congestion call options and contrast these to traditional user optimized flow patterns. In particular, a numerical example is presented that shows congestion options have the potential to lower the network-wide social costs of congestion. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]