IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/rje/randje/v24y1993iautumnp418-438.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effect of Industrial Structure on Learning by Doing in Nuclear Power Plant Operation

Author

Listed:
  • Richard K. Lester
  • Mark J. McCabe

Abstract

Learning from experience in the nuclear industry has had a significant impact on the operating performance of light water reactor (LWR) power plants. Performance comparisons between the United States and France indicate that the relationship between experience and performance has been strongly influenced by industrial structure. In the United States, a sizable operating performance penalty has been paid both as a result of the diffusion of several types of LWR technology and because of the relative scarcity of multiunit sites caused by the fragmented structure of the electric utility industry. In France, by contrast, performance has benefited from the very high degree of plant design standardization and the prevalence of multiunit siting. These results suggest both short-term and long-term opportunities for improvement in the performance of the American nuclear industry.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard K. Lester & Mark J. McCabe, 1993. "The Effect of Industrial Structure on Learning by Doing in Nuclear Power Plant Operation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 24(3), pages 418-438, Autumn.
  • Handle: RePEc:rje:randje:v:24:y:1993:i:autumn:p:418-438
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0741-6261%28199323%2924%3A3%3C418%3ATEOISO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Z&origin=repec
    File Function: full text
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to JSTOR subscribers. See http://www.jstor.org for details.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rje:randje:v:24:y:1993:i:autumn:p:418-438. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.rje.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.