Procurement

About: Procurement is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 25669 publications have been published within this topic receiving 334145 citations.

Chapter 13 The economics of military manpower

Abstract: The USA and other countries spend a significant portion of their defense budgets on personnel. Effective management of military forces requires an understanding of the economics of military manpower. Over the past three decades economists have produced a substantial body of research about the subject. This chapter distills this literature for a general audience. Topics surveyed include the supply of personnel, personnel productivity and the demand for personnel, procurement by conscription versus voluntary means, the structure of pay, the use of women and reservists, and the civilian return to military training and experience. It also points to directions for future research.

Corporate Environmentalism, Regulatory Reform, and Industry Self-Regulation: Toward Genuine Regulatory Reinvention in the United States

Abstract: Increasingly, corporations are proactively managing environmental impacts in response to pressures from the consumer, business-to-business, financial, and government procurement markets. In many cases, these efforts have produced results well beyond what could be required under public regulations. Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began a process of regulatory reinvention in the 1990s as a means of promoting such innovations, the results have been somewhat disappointing. This article examines the recent trends in corporate environmental management and regulatory reform. It concludes with a discussion of changes in regulatory design that could promote ongoing gains in corporate environmental performance through the creation of a hybrid system combining elements of public regulation, government-supervised corporate self-regulation, mandatory information disclosure, and green procurement.

Government procurement: A synthesis report

Abstract: Governments are significant purchasers of goods and services and these markets represent huge opportunities for international trade. Measuring government procurement for a large number of countries, in a consistent manner, is not a trivial task and careful attention must be paid to ensure that national data is gathered on the basis of harmonised procedures in all countries covered. Quantifying the size of government procurement markets becomes even more complicated when attempts are made at distinguishing procurement between government levels (central versus sub-central), or by types of expenditure (consumption versus investment), or at measuring the share of procurement that is potentially opened up to international trade (contestable). The latter indicator is meant to capture tradable purchases and excludes two categories of government purchases that are assumed to be nontradable, i.e. the compensation of government employees and defence-related expenditure...

Quality management in construction industry

Abstract: To address quality problems and their associated costs, the construction industry must pursue and implement innovative quality‐management organizations and techniques. This paper presents the findings of a research project conducted to identify attributes of effective quality‐management systems in the construction industry. The objectives were met through an extensive literature review and in‐depth interviews with 142 engineering, construction, quality, and procurement personnel from 19 owner and contractor firms involved in heavy industrial, manufacturing, and commercial construction. The emergence of total quality management (TQM) applications in the construction industry was a significant finding of the interviews. The results indicate that substantial improvements in meeting quality requirements can be achieved by the use of TQM in the construction industry. Implementation techniques and attributes of effective quality‐management systems were identified and categorized.

When Does Regulation Distort Costs? Lessons from Fuel Procurement in U.S. Electricity Generation

Abstract: This paper evaluates changes in fuel procurement practices by coal- and gas-red power plants in the United States following state-level legislation that ended cost-of-service regulation of electricity generation. I nd that deregulated plants substantially reduce the price paid for coal (but not gas), and tend to employ less capital-intensive sulfur abatement techniques relative to matched plants that were not subject to any regulatory change. Deregulation also led to a shift toward more productive coal mines. I show how these results lend support to theories of asymmetric information, capital bias, and regulatory capture as important sources of regulatory distortion.