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To bid or not to bid: That is the question: Public procurement, project complexity and corruption

Simona Baldi, Anna Bottasso, Maurizio Conti and Chiara Piccardo

European Journal of Political Economy, 2016, vol. 43, issue C, 89-106

Abstract: The main aim of this study is to improve our comprehension of the role played by project complexity and institutional quality as possible drivers of the choice between open auctions and negotiations in a sample of Italian municipalities. Controlling for project characteristics, for observed and unobserved heterogeneity at municipality level, our main results suggest that projects that are more complex are more likely to be procured with negotiated procedures. On average, a rise in the project complexity index from the 25th to the 75th percentile of its distribution increases the probability of procuring the project with a negotiated procedure by about 6%–8%. However, our results also suggest that the impact of complexity might be more relevant in the case of projects procured by municipalities located in provinces characterized by low levels of corruption. Moreover, we also find that complex projects are associated to longer delays in their execution, larger rebates and to higher probabilities to be awarded to local firms.

Keywords: Public procurement; Complexity; Corruption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D44 D72 D73 D82 H57 L14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (34)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:poleco:v:43:y:2016:i:c:p:89-106

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2016.04.002

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European Journal of Political Economy is currently edited by J. De Haan, A. L. Hillman and H. W. Ursprung

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