Whatever happened to competition in space agency procurement? The case of NASA

Vasilis Zervos
Additional contact information
Vasilis Zervos: International Space University and Nottingham University Business School, http://www.isunet.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=282&Itemid=246

Journal of Applied Economics, 2008, vol. 11, 221-236

Abstract: Using the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as a case study, this paper examines how conflicting objectives in procurement policies by public space agencies result in anti-competitive procurement. Globally, public sectors have actively encouraged mergers and acquisitions of major contractors at the national level, since the end of the "Cold War", following largely from the perceived benefits of economies of size. The paper examines the impact the resulting industrial concentration has on the ability of space agencies to follow a pro-competitive procurement policy. Using time series econometric analysis, the paper shows that NASA's pro-competitive policy is unsuccessful due to a shift, since the mid-1990s, in the share of appropriations in favour of its top contractors.

Keywords: procurement; space industry; space agencies; NASA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H57 L50 L60 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ucema.edu.ar/publicaciones/download/volume11/zervos.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cem:jaecon:v:11:y:2008:n:1:p:221-236

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Applied Economics is currently edited by Germán Coloma and Mariana Conte Grand and Jorge M. Streb

More articles in Journal of Applied Economics from Universidad del CEMA Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Valeria Dowding ().