A Transaction Cost Economics View of DOD Outsourcing

Abstract

Many goods and services required for government operations can be provided through commercial markets. Public officials, therefore, face a number of "make-or-buy" decisions. Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) offers a useful foundation for characterizing "make-or-buy" decisions, which this paper explores. Our dual objective is to synthesize key principles of TCE and to apply TCE to federal outsourcing. One especially useful insight is that transaction costs vary widely, and depend in known ways upon the attributes of the outsourcing action. This means, among other things, that one size should not fit all in outsourcing decision processes.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 2005
Accession Number
ADA498850

Entities

People

  • François Melese
  • Raymond E. Franck

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accounting
  • Budgets
  • Business Administration
  • Business Process Reengineering
  • Commerce
  • Contracts
  • Department Of Defense
  • Economic Analysis
  • Economics
  • Governments
  • Management Personnel
  • Operations Research
  • Organizational Structure
  • Outsourcing
  • Public Policy
  • Resource Management
  • Systems Engineering

Readers

  • Economics
  • Groundwater Contamination Remediation.