Railroad Contract Models in Colombia: the Cauca Railroad in the 19th Century

This article analyzes the contracting and construction process of the Cauca Railroad in the period between 1872 and 1907, with the objective of studying how these contracts were developed and show the asymmetry in the negotiations processes between national and regional governments and sources of capital and other governments, by discussing signed incomplete contracts and the existence of large information and negotiation capacity asymmetries. Due to this, this railroad has the highest construction costs of the period and one of the lowest construction averages of the 19th century, for a railway that was considered fundamental for the economic development of the country.