Bleakley Hoyt, Lin Jeffrey
Associate Professor of Economics, Booth School of Business, University of Chicago. Postal address: 5807 South Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637.
Q J Econ. 2012 May;127(2):587-644. doi: 10.1093/qje/qjs011.
We examine portage sites in the U.S. South, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest, including those on the , a geomorphological feature in the southeastern U.S. marking the final rapids on rivers before the ocean. Historically, waterborne transport of goods required portage around the falls at these points, while some falls provided water power during early industrialization. These factors attracted commerce and manufacturing. Although these original advantages have long since been made obsolete, we document the continuing importance of these portage sites over time. We interpret these results as path dependence and contrast explanations based on sunk costs interacting with decreasing versus increasing returns to scale.
我们考察了美国南部、大西洋中部和中西部的转运地点，包括位于[具体名称未给出]上的那些地点，[具体名称未给出]是美国东南部的一种地貌特征，标志着河流在入海口之前的最后一段急流。从历史上看，货物的水上运输需要在这些地点的瀑布处进行陆运，而一些瀑布在早期工业化时期提供了水力。这些因素吸引了商业和制造业。尽管这些最初的优势早已过时，但我们记录了随着时间推移这些转运地点持续存在的重要性。我们将这些结果解释为路径依赖，并对比了基于沉没成本与规模报酬递减和递增相互作用的解释。
