Oligopoly Agreement and the Timing of American Railroad Construction
研究了美国西部铁路建设集中在几次建设热潮中的原因，发现这是寡头铁路企业通过策略行为创造和破坏不完全产权的结果，当合作执行成本低时避免超前建设以创造租金，执行困难时则通过建设热潮争夺租金。
The railroads in the American West were constructed in a few concentrated building booms. This timing of construction resulted from the alternate creation and collapse of imperfect property rights to rights of way in partially settled areas. These “property rights” arose from strategic behavior within the railroad oligopoly. When enforcement costs of cooperative action were low, the railroads were able to create rents by avoiding construction ahead of demand. When enforcement became difficult, however, construction was the only way to capture rents on unbuilt lines so a construction boom ensued.