An arms race for an artificial general intelligence (AGI) would be detrimental for and even pose an existential threat to humanity if it results in an unfriendly AGI. In this paper an all-pay contest model is developed to derive implications for public policy to avoid such an outcome. It is...

This paper provides first empirical insights on the relationship between green public procurement (GPP) and firms' innovation activities. Considering that the public sector is a large buyer in the economy, public procurement is able to work as demand-pull factor for new products and thus...

This paper reviews the main theoretical and practical arguments in favor and against governments’ policies supporting Free/Open Source (F/OS) software. Using the information gathered from the OSOR.eu website, we build an original dataset about F/OS software interventions across Europe and we...

This review essay discusses a unique book that chronicles the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) or "drone" revolution with a focus on the Predator weapon system. Although brought to market by a mainstream publisher, the book offers a thought-provoking, heavily researched, non-fiction case study...

The objective of this work is to create a comprehensive conceptual framework for informing the choice between firm-fixed price and cost-plus contract forms in acquisition or procurement contracts. The effects and relative magnitudes of quality and productivity incentives, economic profit,...

Globally, the rapid rise of Open Source Software (OSS) development has drawn the intense attention of the public sector as well as the private sector. For a variety of policy reasons, governments throughout the world are now adopting various legislative and administrative strategies that support...

The defense authorization act for fiscal year 2007, the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007, H.R. 5122, has been signed into law. This essay reviews some of the key provisions in the act regarding procurement reform, including: (1) a renewed focus on lead systems...

The Department of Defense (DOD) increasingly recognizes that it must do more to spur innovation to maintain its technological superiority. This article suggests that DOD’s leadership make time for David McCullough’s recent biography, The Wright Brothers, as an aviation anecdote chock full of...

When designing a national public procurement system, the degree of centralization (or, equivalently, the degree of demand aggregation) is one of the most crucial as well as puzzling policy choices. Centralized procurement has been traditionally considered as an instrument to reduce public...

The hegemonic ‘smart city’ approach in the European H2020 institutional framework is slowly evolving into a new citizen-centric paradigm called the ‘experimental city’. While this evolution incorporates social innovations — including urban co-operative platforms that are flourishing as...