Public procurement in many European Union member states remains strongly priceoriented, often at the expense of delivery performance, innovation, and effective risk management. This study examines how the Best Value Approach (BVA) operates within a post-transition, legality-focused...

Limited competition in public procurement remains a persistent concern, yet the reasons for low participation are not well understood. We conduct a conjoint survey experiment that targets both potential and actual bidders in Finland. We present real firms with hypothetical tender scenarios,...

We study the extent of a one-size-fits-all approach in the design of public procurement (PP) tenders using comprehensive data from Finland. We show that crucial PP design features related to auction and contract rules tend to have significant lack of variation across different tenders for...

Effective policy implementation is foundational to development and depends crucially on a competent and committed bureaucracy. Bureaucratic failures can arise from both imperfect capabilities and incentive misalignment-dimensions of state capacity that often coexist and shape policy outcomes...

We develop a method for detecting cartels in multistage auctions. Our approach allows a firm to be collusive when facing members of its cartel yet competitive when facing others. Intuitively, as initial bids are shaded, close initial bids not only imply similar costs but also provide an...

Using administrative data from Germany, this study provides first evidence on the wage effects of collective bargaining compliance laws. These laws require establishments receiving public contracts to pay wages set by a representative collective agreement, even if they are not formally bound by...

Governments support the green transition through green public procurement. Using US data, this paper provides the first empirical analysis of the causal effects of green contracts on corporate greenhouse gas emissions and economic performance. We focus on an affirmative program for sustainable...

Approximately 42% of European public procurement contracts are awarded to a sole bidder. As this market represents about one-seventh of GDP in developed countries, any inefficiency is a first-order concern. This paper examines a Czech reform that prohibited awarding such single-bid contracts....

This paper proposes a mission-oriented national strategy for strengthening cybersecurity and achieving digital sovereignty in the Netherlands for 2025–2035. It outlines an integrated framework across four pillars: national cyber resilience, sovereign digital procurement, innovation and...

We study how demand related to the digital transformation of public institutions affects local suppliers of IT-related services and products in the Czech Republic during 2012-2022, a period of rapid digital transformation of the public sector. Using firm- and tender-level data and...

We examine the impact of the EU Remedies Directive on the use of direct awards. Theoretically, strengthening bid protest mechanisms should reduce the use of direct awards as aggrieved bidders are more likely to challenge such awards. By utilising the staggered implementation of the Remedies...

The latest resurgence in the U.S. of policies aimed at reducing imports and bolstering domestic production has included the expansion of Buy American provisions. While some of these are new and untested, in this paper we evaluate long-standing procurement limitations on the purchase of foreign...

This study aims to deepen our understanding of the evolving landscape of public procurement (PP) and emerging technologies (ET). It addresses the critical gap in scholarly production analysis, author collaborations, and thematic trends in PP and ET, providing valuable insights for researchers,...

A set-aside promotes a more equitable procurement process by restricting participation in government tenders to small or disadvantaged businesses. Yet its micro-effects on tender outcomes (competition and contract efficiency) and targeted firm performance entail trade-offs, which we evaluate...

Public procurement contracts require frequent renegotiation. We exploit the Czech implementation of an EU policy as a natural experiment to investigate the effect of eased renegotiation rules. We document that the eased renegotiation rules decreased winning bids but did not change the final...

Governments can support the green transition through green public procurement. Despite its strategic importance, the impact of this policy on firms remains unclear. Using US data, this paper provides the first empirical analysis of the causal effects of green contracts on corporate environmental...

This paper examines the effect of government procurement on the firm-level labor share in China. Using manually collected local government contract data matched with A-share non-financial listed firms from 2015 to 2023, we find that firms receiving government procurement contracts experience...

This paper analyzes the economic returns to political connections in Brazilian local elections, focusing not only on traditional campaign donations but also on two novel channels: firms that provide goods or services to candidates during campaigns and firms' owners affiliated with parties within...