The long term effects of an aging fleet on operational availability and cost: evidence from the U.S. Coast Guard
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Authors
Lavin, Christopher W.
McNab, Robert M.
Sullivan, Ryan S.
Subjects
Operational availability
Program cost
Coastguard
Fleet
Program cost
Coastguard
Fleet
Advisors
Date of Issue
2017
Date
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Language
Abstract
This paper empirically examines whether the aging of a fleet affects operational availability and
operating cost using a unique data-set on the 117 47-foot Motor Lifeboats (MLBs) of the United
States Coast Guard (USCG). Procured from 1997 to 2003, the 47-foot MLB is the standard lifeboat of
the USCG and all 117 MLBs remain in service. The aging of the MLB fleet has resulted in higher
annual operating costs and lower operational availability, although the nature of this relationship
remains unclear. Our estimation strategy utilizes an error components esti- mator to examine these
issues. We employ three variants of the dependent variables (i.e. the standard logarithmic
transformation as is most commonly seen in the literature, inverse hyperbolic sine [IHS], and level
outcomes). The point estimates from the standard logarithmic model finds operational availability
for the MLBs decreases at a rate between 0.83 and 1.8% per year and cost increases at a rate
between 0.33 and 7.81% per year. Similar effects are shown with the IHS and level outcome
specifications. In terms of nonlinearity effects, we find the most pronounced changes in operational
availability and cost occur for MLBs aged 15 years or more (in comparison to younger MLBs).
Type
Article
Description
The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10242694.2016.1192833
Series/Report No
Department
Organization
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
Format
19 p.
Citation
Christopher W. Lavin, Robert M. McNab & Ryan S. Sullivan (2017) "The long
term effects of an aging fleet on operational availability and cost: evidence from the U.S. coast
guard," Defence and Peace Economics, 28:6, 634-651,
Distribution Statement
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.