Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBE) have been given preferential treatment in government contracts for over thirty years while DBE's special treatment in the contracting process has been challenged for the past fifteen years. The challenge has been especially strong since the Croson and Adrand federal court case decisions in 1989 and 1995, respectively. In response to the court challenges,
... [Show full abstract] agencies have paid for Disparity Studies in order to justify their DBE participation goals. This paper identifies shortcomings of most disparity studies and recommends an alternate model that can be implemented by the agencies with little or no additional cost while obtaining more information and capabilities to effectively establish, monitor and manage their DBE programs.