Research project Why do some firms submit bids in public procurement and others do not? In this three-year project, we analyse how the design of the procurement affects the decision to submit bids and the number of bidders. An important contribution is that both actual and potential bidders are included in the empirical analysis, which is based on a combination of survey data, procurement data, and firm data.
Bidding for public contracts aims to achieve lower prices and higher quality through the competition mechanism. While public procurement should promote competition, there are political ambitions regarding, for example, environment and climate, as well as the participation of small and medium-sized firms. This project studies how participation is affected by procurement design, in terms of, for example, division into subcontracts, environmental considerations, and award criteria. The analysis also considers characteristics of procuring authorities, actual and potential bidders, and industry.
Swedish Competition Authority
