Discretion and political favoritism: Evidence from two reforms in public procurement

IF 16.4 1区化学 Q1 CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Accounts of Chemical Research Pub Date : 2024-06-10 DOI:10.1002/soej.12709

Marly Tatiana Celis Galvez, Vitezslav Titl, F. Schotanus

引用次数: 0

Abstract

The misuse of bureaucratic discretion in public procurement risks political favoritism and corruption. Discretionary thresholds regulate this, with lenient rules below and strict oversight above these thresholds. We examine the impact of changes in these thresholds in the Czech Republic in 2012 and 2016 on discretion misuse and market competition, using bunching estimators, regression discontinuity, and comprehensive data on construction contracts, political ties, and firm productivity. Our findings show a concentration of contracts just below thresholds, both pre and post‐reforms. Reforms reallocating contract values to new thresholds reveal that limiting discretion lowers final contract prices, indicating increased efficiency. However, when discretion increases, final prices are unaffected. Efficiency gains are not seen in contracts awarded to politically connected firms, suggesting that political favoritism hinders market outcome improvements from stricter regulations.

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自由裁量权与政治偏袒：两次公共采购改革的证据

在公共采购中滥用官僚自由裁量权有可能导致政治偏袒和腐败。自由裁量权阈值对此进行了规范，阈值以下规则宽松，阈值以上监督严格。我们利用集合估计法、回归非连续性以及有关建筑合同、政治关系和企业生产率的综合数据，考察了捷克共和国 2012 年和 2016 年这些门槛的变化对自由裁量权滥用和市场竞争的影响。我们的研究结果表明，无论是改革前还是改革后，合同都集中在阈值以下。将合同价值重新分配到新阈值的改革表明，限制自由裁量权会降低最终合同价格，从而提高效率。然而，当自由裁量权增加时，最终价格却不受影响。与政治有关联的公司所获合同的效率并没有提高，这表明政治偏袒阻碍了更严格监管带来的市场结果改善。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Accounts of Chemical Research 化学-化学综合

CiteScore

31.40

自引率

1.10%

发文量

312

审稿时长

2 months

期刊介绍： Accounts of Chemical Research presents short, concise and critical articles offering easy-to-read overviews of basic research and applications in all areas of chemistry and biochemistry. These short reviews focus on research from the author’s own laboratory and are designed to teach the reader about a research project. In addition, Accounts of Chemical Research publishes commentaries that give an informed opinion on a current research problem. Special Issues online are devoted to a single topic of unusual activity and significance. Accounts of Chemical Research replaces the traditional article abstract with an article "Conspectus." These entries synopsize the research affording the reader a closer look at the content and significance of an article. Through this provision of a more detailed description of the article contents, the Conspectus enhances the article's discoverability by search engines and the exposure for the research.