Quote Originally Posted by Ken White
My limited experience with RAND and several of the others is that their egos are such that they'll rarely recognize even their own earlier studies...

Not to mention that they tend to produce answers sought by the requester or director of the study. I spent two miserable weeks at Santa Monica as the Army SME on a classified SDC effort; was treated politely, fed well, questioned thoroughly and worked with two sharp young analysts. The result was to undo much that had been done before my arrival; the real result was that the final product rejected most of my input and went back to what the study director had postulated out of his hip pocket before I arrived. Producing, according to the DCSOPS shop at DA, a product of less than marginal uitility. That's one example of many. Most think tank reports in my observation warrant some if not considerable skepticism...
Ken, I have mixed observations on the quality of RAND products, and most differences are (like with much else in life) driven by the people and personalities involved. Some are much like you describe your experience - in fact, I had a very recent experience with a prolific RAND author of material on risk modeling that was quite similar, and left me very doubtful of the quality of his published work.

On the other hand, they do have some very insightful people who produce for them. Regarding recognizing their own earlier studies, as an organization RAND certainly does - they are very good at digitizing and reprinting older material of value. But when it comes to the individuals who carry out many of their studies; again, its a mixed bag.

In regard to the value of the study at the head of the thread, I have yet to read the whole thing, so I can't offer a cogent judgment. But if it turns out to be a poor product, it wouldn't be the first time that I've posted something from RAND that turned out to be a waste of time. On the other hand, they do publish enough thought-provoking solid material that I find it useful to slot them in here when they're published, as appropriate.

Ted