Tracks across Continents, Paths through History¶
Puffert, D. J. (2009). Tracks across Continents, Paths through History: The Economic Dynamics of Standardization in Railway Gauge. University of Chicago Press.
Cited by¶
2 citations across 2 artifacts.
Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.
Primes¶
- Lock-In
- Puffert (2009) treats rail-gauge lock-in as one of the most precisely documented infrastructural cases, with switching costs in the billions and continuation costs that have been borne for over a century.
This sourceGlobally comparative history of railway gauge standardization; the most precisely documented infrastructural lock-in case, with multi-billion-dollar switching costs and century-long continuation costs illustrating how complementary investment in physical infrastructure produces deep, durable asymmetries.
- Puffert (2009) treats rail-gauge lock-in as one of the most precisely documented infrastructural cases, with switching costs in the billions and continuation costs that have been borne for over a century.
- Standardization
- In infrastructure, railway gauge standardization is the textbook case: railways built to incompatible gauges could not interchange rolling stock, and the convergence on a standard gauge (often by mandate or by the dominant network's de facto pull) was the act that let separate lines become one network — with the persistent minority of non-standard gauges a monument to the cost of failing to converge.
This sourceThe canonical study of railway-gauge standardization as path-dependent convergence on a shared specification.
- In infrastructure, railway gauge standardization is the textbook case: railways built to incompatible gauges could not interchange rolling stock, and the convergence on a standard gauge (often by mandate or by the dominant network's de facto pull) was the act that let separate lines become one network — with the persistent minority of non-standard gauges a monument to the cost of failing to converge.
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