While the theory of the patent system is premised on the idea that patents will be used to exclude competitors, only a tiny fraction of patents are ever enforced. Legal and economic scholars have theorized as to how to identify valuable patents based on their individual characteristics. In this...

While the theory of the patent system is premised on the idea that patents will be used to exclude competitors, only a tiny fraction of patents are ever enforced. Legal and economic scholars have theorized as to how to identify valuable patents based on their individual characteristics. In this...

In a privatization competition, private contractors bid against an in-house team to perform a governmental function currently performed by the in-house team. The Department of Defense initiated 3,500 privatization competitions from 1978 to 1994, generating annual savings of $1.46 billion. We...

In a privatization competition, private contractors bid against an in-house team to perform a governmental function currently performed by the in-house team. The Department of Defense initiated 3,500 privatization competitions from 1978 to 1994, generating annual savings of $1.46 billion. We...

In a privatization competition, private contractors bid against an in-house team to perform a governmental function that is currently performed by the in-house team. The Department of Defense initiated 3,500 privatization competitions from 1978 to 1994, generating estimated annual savings of...

From 1978 to 1994, the Department of Defense conducted more than 2,000 competitions in which private contractors and the government's in-house team bid to provide a service performed in-house before the competition. A three-equation model is constructed, which is used to estimate the in-house...