TVA and the other federal electric utilities were created under Democratic administrations, and their service territories were initially bluer than average. These subsidized enterprises sell cheap power preferentially to non-investor-owned distributors, so such distributors are more prominent...

This paper offers a comprehensive evaluation of the welfare impact of a policy usually regarded as highly successful and vastly imitated worldwide: The privatisation policy pursued in the UK by Mrs Thatcher's government (1979-1990) and subsequently by Mr Major's government (1990-1997) The...

For several decades public enterprises have been criticized for their poor economic performance. Many economists take it as ‘conventional wisdom’ that publicly owned enterprises are inefficient by their very nature. This seemed to be proved by what is probably the most cited survey...

Until recently, utility services (telecommunications, power, water, and gas) throughout the world were provided by large, usually state-owned, monopolies. However, encouraged by technological change, regulatory innovation, and pressure from international organizations, many developing countries...

This essay discusses Jon Michaels’ thoughtful and thought-provoking new book, Constitutional Coup: Privatization’s Threat to the American Republic (Harvard, 2017). In the book, Michaels recommends not only that we apply the brakes to the outsourcing train, but that the very future of our...

Procurement professionals will increasingly be asked to play an important role in adapting to and mitigating the effects of climate change. Unfortunately, we don't have time to waste, either feeling hopeless or waiting for changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and subsequent...

Optimal pricing facilitates attainment of specific goals. The optimum price to achieve profit maximization may differ from the one needed to maximize welfare or to ensure the highest revenue. Profit maximization is the traditional motivation of the private firms. In case of private monopoly...

As an industry, higher education shows some striking anomalies. It is the only important industry in the United States that has been increasingly socialized in recent decades: the market share of public institutions grew, roughly, from 50 percent to 80 percent over the last half of the twentieth...

This chapter concludes a book that grew out of a 2015 conference hosted by the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law, which brought together defense industry leaders, academics, and lawyers to discuss ethical challenges to the defense industry. Authors from the...

Ausgangspunkt für Überlegungen zur Einführung der Prozesskostenrechnung als eines Bestandteils des Qualitätsmanagements in der öffentlichen Verwaltung ist die Frage, wie die Verwaltung bei wachsenden Aufgabenanforderungen aus Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft eine noch effektivere...