What does it mean to secure our supply chains?
One of the most misleading popular phrases used today in discussions of economics and economic policy is “supply chains.” The reason is that in the […]
Economics
GMU report on Covid-19 contract issues: terminations, simplified acquisition, and more
Contractors may worry, for example, about the government terminating contracts for convenience during the COVID-19 crisis. Non-defense contract actions do not indicate a significant uptick […]
Update on federal contract data for Covid-19 — Breakdown and Map
A net total of $1.97 billion has been obligated to federal contractors in response to Covid-19 between February 4 and April 5. Over the course […]
Federal contracting response to Covid-19
Federal obligations for the month of March in response to the spread of COVID-19 could top $100 billion if current trends hold, an analyst said […]
Are 80 percent of lifecycle costs predestined by PDR?
One of the potential pitfalls of the rapid prototyping path could be the neglect of production and sustainment costs in the effort to ensure that […]
Economics doesn’t describe the reality of production
The revenue or cost of each additional unit is called the margin. Economists assume that corporations seek to maximize profit, which occurs at the unit […]
Healthcare analogies for defense acquisition
I think we have to remember we have good people in healthcare. We are all attracted to the healthcare profession out of a sense of […]
Consciously creating competition in government
What is the appropriate role of government in society? That’s the classical liberal question. And then what is the machinery of freedom that brings it […]
Can open data improve procurement outcomes?
We examine how the increased accessibility of public purchasing data affects competition, prices, contract allocations, and contract performance in government procurement. The European Union recently […]
How do cost and mgmt. systems create biases against innovators in DOD?
Many causes could be cited for the institutional bias against innovators – or what could be termed more broadly as entrepreneurs – in the Department […]
GMU Center for Govt Contracting fills an academic void
George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, officially kicked off the Center for Government Contracting to fill an academic and research void. “The vision of […]
How should cost estimators respond to rapid acquisition?
As the Department of Defense keeps up the pressure on rapid acquisition, all functional areas are wondering how they can best support the policies. Cost […]
The debate over how Chinese military expenditures should be normalized to dollars
The American defense budget is still over 2.5 times larger than Beijing’s, but China has steadily been closing the gap. Moreover, China faces much lower […]
Do government pricing policies hinder 1,000 fold improvements in cost or capabilities?
Felix is developing a highly differentiated product that he’s been working on for the last 15 years that also has these massive business implications for […]
The end of accounting, and why cost-based pricing loses relevance in the innovation economy
Interviewer: Are you familiar with the economic theory of the bootleggers and the baptists? It explains the notion of why prohibition was able to last […]