https://wiki.freecapitalists.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Path_dependencePath dependence - Revision history2026-08-13T07:12:55ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.9https://wiki.freecapitalists.org/index.php?title=Path_dependence&diff=17884&oldid=prevMatthew: create2011-09-30T23:37:10Z<p>create</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>'''Path dependence''' in [[economics]] is the phenomenon whereby an economic outcome is the result of a historical path or series of accidents rather than current market conditions. In processes which result in such outcomes it is commonly said that "history matters".<ref>Puffert, Douglas. [http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/puffert.path.dependence "Path Dependence"], 2010.</ref> The idea of path dependence was put forth by economists Brian Arthur and Paul David<ref name="Spulber_Failures">Spulber, Daniel. "Famous Fables of Economic – Myths of Market Failures", 2002, page 12.</ref> and is based on an analogy used to characterize systems in biology and physics which have strong sensitivity to initial conditions and are thus said to be path dependent.<ref name="Spulber_Failures" /> Economic outcomes which are path dependent are sometimes believed to potentially result in a market failure if for example they lead to a related phenomenon known as [[technology lock-in|technological lock-in]], whereby a possibly inferior standard is chosen as a result of its path dependence. <br />
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