The Effects of Military and Other Government Spending on the Computer Industry: The Early Years
Abstract
This paper is a study of the effects of government investment on the U.S. computer industry. Specifically, this report focuses on the nascent years of computers (the later 1940s through and mid 1950s) and the role that the government, especially the Department of Defense, played as a sponsor of university and corporate computer research and production efforts. The report examines the position of dominance the U.S. held in the computer industry by the late 1950s and retains today, attempting to analyze the much of this is due to early government support. This paper is actually one case study that is part of a broader effort toward analyzing the effects of defense spending on the U.S. industries and the economy as a whole. Both potential positive and negative effects were examined in a series of industry-by-industry case studies analyzing the costs of military spending. The specifics as to what constitute positive and negative effects are delineated in the what constitute positive and negative effects are delineated in the body of this report. This larger problem was tackled in RAND Graduate School's Civil and Military Technology Workshop in the Spring of 1988. Each of the five students in the class conducted a case study to analyze the government's role in the successes and failures of particular industries. The five industrie examined are the early computer industry (here), parallel processing in the modern computer industry, semiconductors, numerically controlled machine tools, and commercial aircraft.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 1989
- Accession Number
- ADA228234
Entities
People
- Susan Schechter
Organizations
- RAND Corporation