Better Together? The Effect of U.S. Defense Industry Consolidation on Procurement Outcomes
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Many policymakers believe that the consolidation of the U.S. defense industry is suboptimal, pointing to cost overruns, program delays, and technological problems with products. Meanwhile, economists believe that there may actually be efficiencies to be gained through consolidation in the defense industry and that therefore, its effects are not always negative. Utilizing a novel approach that combines economic and social science analyses, this thesis asks whether the consolidation of the U.S. defense industry has, in fact, increased costs and schedule delays of major defense acquisition programs and decreased private sector innovation and investment in innovation. Analysis of original datasets of Selected Acquisition Report summary table data from 2000-2020, schedule delay data compiled from GAO Annual Weapon’s Assessment reports since 2003, and company research and development spending of the prime contractors from 2000-2020 suggests that defense industry consolidation leads to negative effects on the cost and schedule of major defense acquisition programs as well as varied effects on private sector innovation/investment in innovation. Case studies of the F-35 and Ground Based Strategic Deterrent illustrate the dangers of the current states of the procurement process and the defense industry and also raise questions about the efficacy of current economic methodologies for analyzing cost growth of major defense acquisition programs. Policymakers should consider further examination of defense industry competition and M&A activity as well as the benefits of knowledge-based acquisition practices as the Department of Defense moves towards key decision points regarding legacy systems and the future of U.S. defense capabilities.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | June 3, 2021 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Zanolli, Corinne Ruth Patton |
|---|---|
| Advisor | Zegart, Amy |
| Advisor | Larsen, Brad |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Center for International Security and Cooperation |
Subjects
| Subject | Defense |
|---|---|
| Subject | Procurement |
| Subject | Defense Industry Consolidation |
| Subject | Prime Contractors |
| Subject | Major Defense Acquisition Programs |
| Subject | Selected Acquisition Reports |
| Subject | Political Science |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Zanolli, Corinne Ruth Patton. (2021). Better Together? The Effect of U.S. Defense Industry Consolidation on Procurement Outcomes. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/nw554xy3032
Collection
Stanford University, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Interschool Honors Program in International Security Studies, Theses
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- Contact
- czanolli@alumni.stanford.edu
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