I'm reading a paper on parking: Anderson & de Palma, 2003, The economics of pricing parking.
The authors repeatedly refer to either 'decentralizing the optimum' or 'the optimum can be decentralized'....
Here is an example:
The optimum involves unequal treatment of equals in the sense that different individuals get different utilities at the optimum. Those who are allocated to park closer to the [central business district] get higher utility than those who park further away. The optimumm can be decentralized via pricing of parking. Since parking is more desirable closer to the center, the optimum parking tariff increases with closeness to the CBD in order to counteract this effect and reduce the over-congestion that is more pronounced closest to the CBD. We next derive the optimum parking tariff.
Q1: In general in economics literature and/or in the context of this paper, is "optimal" generally accepted as referring to Pareto efficiency?
Q2: What does it mean to "decentralize the optimum" ?