The Capital Budgeting Policies of the U. S. Shipbuilding Industry: An Analysis of Defense Industry Behavior

摘要

This study investigates and analyzes the factors influencing recent capital budgeting policies of the U.S. shipbuilding industry. A description of the decisional elements involved in past capital investment programs of U.S. shipyards and the effect these programs have had on shipbuilding capability and capacity have been derived from an analysis of a selected sample of U.S. shipyard data. This study not only explains the investment policies of the shipbuilding industry, but also relates these policies to the behavior of the defense industry and the defense industrial base as these terms are usefully defined in the study. Comparisons are made between (1) the defense industry and commercial sector industries, and (2) the platform industry, per se--i.e., ships, aircraft, missiles, and armored vehicles, and those firms that manufacture mission-related equipment. This study is at once conclusive and exploratory: Conclusive in its explanation of the dynamics of the U.S. shipbuilding industry and exploratory in that it points to critical unanswered questions about the overall structure of the U.S. economy in general and the defense industries in particular.