Xavier Durán

Why Was the Wheel (Not) Used in the Andes? A Hypothesis Explaining the Slow Adoption of Wagon Transport and Evidence from Nineteenth-Century Colombia

The slow adoption of wagon transport in the Andes is a puzzle. We examine it by developing a threshold technology-adoption model calibrated using human and mule energy consumption and unique historical data from a human trail and the first wagon road in the Andes. Model predictio...