Microeconomics, Competition, and Major Defense Acquisition Program Cost [video]
Authors
McElroy, Kenneth L.
Kamp, John
Subjects
Advisors
Date of Issue
2021-05-20
Date
05/20/21
Publisher
Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School
Language
Abstract
The Major Defense Acquisition Program (MDAP) market is a monopsony facing oligopoly. In the last four decades, the Department of Defense has placed a great deal of emphasis in its acquisition reform efforts on the power of competition to help control cost overruns and cost growth. In this research, quantitative analyses were used to determine the effect of two reform measures—competitive prototyping and competitive contracting—on cost overruns and cost growth during the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase of the acquisition life cycle. We performed a case study of 63 hardware MDAP contracts from all services. The findings show that while competitive prototyping and competitive contracting lead to greater competition, as the defense acquisition community believes, they fail to control cost overruns and cost growth, just as microeconomic theory predicts.
Type
Video
Presentation
Presentation
Description
A video presentation with accompanying slides.
Series/Report No
Department
Organization
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
SYM-AM-21-219
SYM-AM-21-143
SYM-AM-21-143
Sponsors
Prepared for the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA 93943.
Naval Postgraduate School
Naval Postgraduate School
Funder
Format
Citation
Distribution Statement
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.