In recent years government economic policy in the UK and elsewhere has been guided by the belief that changing organisational status improves performance (Ott and Hartley, 1991; Vickers and Yarrow, 1988). This is most evident in the case of the UK privatisation programme, where it is believed that...

The Single European Market seeks to eliminate the preferential public purchasing of civil goods and services. Article 223 of the Treaty of Rome allows exemptions for specifically military equipment but not for dual-use goods. This paper reviews evidence on whether Defence Ministries and the...

Privatization programs have been introduced in a number of countries in the last decade with a view to improving the economic performance of state-owned industries. Yet empirical studies of public versus private ownership have produced mixed results. This study is concerned with assessing the...

The level of technical efficiency in nine organizations privatized in the UK in the 1980s is assessed. Technical efficiency is measured for a number of years before and after privatization using data envelopment analysis. This non-parametric method allows efficiency to be measured without having...

Weapons programs are criticized for cost overruns, delays in delivery and failure to meet their operational requirements. Critics focus on the power and influence of the military-industrial-political complex. This chapter addresses these controversial areas involving arms industries, alternative...

Voluntary military alliances, such as NATO, are often criticized for failing to exploit the opportunities for equipment standardization and free trade. However, nationalism means that governments adopt a variety of industrial policies for purchasing defense equipment, leading to departures from...

This chapter defines defense economics and indicates how it differs from other subfields of economics. The nature and topics of defense economics are presented. A brief history of the field is also reviewed. The current importance of defense economics in the post-cold war era is discussed....

Since the end of the Cold War, the world remains a dangerous place with new threats: regional conflicts, transnational terrorist networks, rogue states, and weapons of mass destruction (i.e., chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear). The second volume of the Handbook of Defense Economics...