The six studies in this volume represent investigations into aspects of
the management of government enterprise. For the most part the concern
is with those governmental units or agencies that provide products
having nongovernmental counterparts. In each case the enterprise is
taken as given, and there is no attempt to justify the participation of
government in the production of goods. Instead, these studies attempt to
define the positions and the functions of the decision makers, to
evaluate product and pricing decisions and to specify appropriate
mechanisms for providing the adequate and timely information required
for efficient control. The first two studies examine the managerial
role. James Suarez defines an enviornment in which the typical public or
private sector classification does not apply. Given the monopsonistic
position of the government in the armaments market, many managerial
marketing decisions are not available to private firms. Thus the
objectives of the participants in this market appear to be confounded.
Suarez investigates this interdependent relationship. 8 STUDIES IN THE
MANAGEMENT OF GOVERNMENT ENTERPRISE In "A First Approach to the Economic
Theory of College Management," Barry Bressler addresses the problem of
resource allocation within the college establishment. Bressler draws on
utility theory to define the manager's objective function and on the
imposed budget reductions suffered by units of the City University of
New York to suggest some of the implications of this managerial
construct. The third and fourth papers concentrate on the products of
two government enterprises.
