Maybe not exactly what you had in mind, but the economics of allocating scarce resources via queues is pretty well-established (and interesting). You might enjoy this read: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.jstor.org&#x2F;stable&#x2F;724744" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.jstor.org&#x2F;stable&#x2F;724744</a>