STANDARDIZATION, DIVERSITY AND LEARNING - STRATEGIES FOR THE COEVOLUTION OF TECHNOLOGY AND INDUSTRIAL CAPACITY

This paper presents a model of industrial process standardization, div ersity, and learning. We show that when the effects of learning throug h diversity are strong, the present value of long-run costs can be min imized with either complete standardization or with complete experimen tation where no two plants are similar in the early stages of the indu stry. We also discuss the relevance of these and other analytical resu lts to the U.S. nuclear industry's standardization policies.