Understanding the Effects of Government Procurement Methods on Prices: an Empirical Study of Inmate Telecommunications Services

了解政府采购方式对价格的影响：囚犯电信服务的实证研究

• 批准号: 2117197
• 负责人: Nathan Miller
• 金额: $ 5.94万
• 依托单位: Georgetown University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-09-01 至 2022-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2117197&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Understanding; Effects; Government; Procurement; Methods

The project will collect data and use the data to test a model of how government procurement can affect the price of a service. The research team will examine why the rates that inmates pay for telecommunications are much higher than the cost of providing the service. The project will make three specific contributions. The first is to collect, organize, and publish information about the rates charged to inmates and the contracts negotiated between the private companies providing telecommunications services and the procuring government entities (e.g., a state-level Department of Corrections). The second is to analyze the information through the lens of economic theory to understand why rates are set at a high level. Among the factors that may contribute to elevated rates are a high willingness-to-pay for calls, limited competition among the providers of telecommunications services, and revenue-sharing agreements between providers and the procuring entities. Finally, the project will explore the efficacy of various policy remedies that have been proposed by interested nonprofit organizations. The results will help us understand how the specific rules used for government procurement affect procurement outcomes. The result could be new insights into how to improve procurement methods to meet important societal goals such as overall economic efficiency and consumer fairness.The project is an empirical study of inmate telecommunications services (ITS) in the United States. It is widely known that inmates pay very high rates, that the market for ITS is highly concentrated, and that the procuring government entity typically negotiates to obtain a portion of the revenues obtained from inmates. To support empirical inquiry, data will be collected on the procurement process, taking advantage of public information laws that make documentation available upon request in many states. A structural model of procurement will be developed based on the second-score auction framework of Asker and Cantillon (2008), and the parameters of the model will be estimated or calibrated using the data obtained from the data requests. With counterfactual simulations, the contributions of market power and revenue-sharing agreements to the rates charged to inmates will be quantified. Further, the efficacy of enhanced antitrust enforcement, contraction restrictions, and rate regulation will be explored.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目将收集数据，并利用这些数据测试政府采购如何影响服务价格的模型。研究小组将研究为什么囚犯支付的电信费用远远高于提供服务的成本。该项目将作出三项具体贡献。首先是收集、组织和公布关于向囚犯收取的费率以及提供电信服务的私营公司与采购政府实体（例如，国家级的矫正机构）。二是通过经济理论的透镜分析信息，理解利率为何定在高水平。可能导致费率提高的因素包括：支付通话费的意愿很高、电信服务提供商之间的竞争有限以及提供商与采购实体之间的收入分享协议。最后，该项目将探讨感兴趣的非营利组织提出的各种政策补救措施的有效性。研究结果将有助于我们理解政府采购的具体规则如何影响采购结果。其结果可能是新的见解，如何改善采购方法，以满足重要的社会目标，如整体经济效率和消费者公平。该项目是一个实证研究的囚犯电信服务（ITS）在美国。众所周知，囚犯支付的费率非常高，智能交通系统的市场高度集中，政府采购实体通常通过谈判从囚犯那里获得一部分收入。为了支持实证调查，将收集关于采购过程的数据，同时利用许多州根据要求提供文件的公共信息法。将根据Asker和Cantillon（2008年）的二次评分拍卖框架开发一个采购结构模型，并将使用从数据请求中获得的数据估计或校准模型参数。通过反事实模拟，市场力量和收入分享协议对向囚犯收取的费率的贡献将被量化。此外，还将探讨加强反垄断执法、合同限制和费率监管的有效性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。