Collaborative Research: Market Design in Public Procurement: Theory and Evidence

专家们估计，世界产出的大约15%是公共部门采购。 因此，仔细设计公共部门购买货物和服务的程序和方法，对于确保货物和服务在经济中的有效分配至关重要。该项目研究如何改进公共采购程序。 方法论的方法是理论和经验的，建议原则上应该产生更好的结果的变化，然后分析现有的数据，以分析这些建议在实践中是否和在多大程度上实际工作。 这个项目的目标有三个方面：第一，有效的奖励程序和合同形式的特点，并比较这些在实践中使用的;第二，开发和测试模式下常用的激励结构的承包商的行为;第三，提出市场设计的改进，并量化的福利收益切换到这些更有效的奖励和承包程序。 PI对明尼苏达州的道路建设项目进行了详细的调查，明尼苏达州交通部提供了详细的数据。 明尼苏达州一直在试验不同的奖励程序，以激励承包商及时完成项目，但学术文献中几乎没有关于如何最好地指定这些程序的细节的指导。 该项目将概述有效提供时间激励的要求，并测试理论的结果是否在实践中得到遵守。 它还将量化通勤者从加快道路建设中受益的程度--从而减少道路上的延误--与承包商为加快建设步伐而花费的加班费和额外资金相比。 该项目的更广泛影响不仅包括新的实证方法和研究生培训，还包括更好的信息，以指导公共采购方法。

Experts have estimated that approximately 15% of world output is accounted for by public sector procurement. Careful design of the procedures and methods used by the public sector in purchasing goods and services is therefore of primary importance for ensuring the efficient allocation of goods and services in the economy. This project investigates ways in which the public procurement process could be improved. The methodological approach is both theoretical and empirical, suggesting changes that in principle should yield better outcomes, and then analyzing the available data to analyze whether and by how much these proposals actually work in practice. The goals of this project are threefold: first, to characterize efficient award procedures and contract forms, and compare these to those used in practice; second, to develop and test models of contractor behavior under commonly used incentive structures; and third, to propose market design improvements, and to quantify the welfare gains from switching to these more efficient awarding and contracting procedures. The PIs conduct a detailed investigation of road construction projects in Minnesota, where detailed data is available from the Minnesota Department of Transportation. Minnesota has been experimenting with different award procedures that give contractors incentives for timely project completion, but there is little guidance from the academic literature on how best to specify the details of these procedures. This project will outline the requirements for efficient provision of time incentives and test whether the outcomes of the theory are observed in practice. It will also quantify how much commuters benefit from accelerated road construction - and thus smaller delays on the road - versus how much it will cost contractors in overtime and additional capital to accelerate the pace of construction. Broader impacts of this project include not just new empirical methods and graduate student training, but much better information to guide public procurement methods.