Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

1 WSEIAC, the Whiz Kids, and RAND

DOI: 10.1201/9781003196174-1

In the summer of 2019, an economist by the name of Alain Enthoven authored a paper [1] on Systems Analysis (SA) and the cost and effectiveness of weapon systems. He noted that Charles Hitch, Chief Economist of the RAND Corporation, was appointed by Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense, as Comptroller of the DoD and that 1961 approximately the year of the SA thrust in his office. McNamara also called this thrust P, A, and E (Planning, Assessment, and Evaluation). Its main purpose was to evaluate DoD systems in terms of their value to the DoD, and make PPBS (Planning, Programming, and Budgeting) decisions as to which systems are needed to be built and which are not.

The Enthoven ...