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The Bidding Game: Competitive Funding Regimes and the Political Targeting of Urban Programme Schemes

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  • JOHN, PETER
  • WARD, HUGH
  • DOWDING, KEITH

Abstract

Public bodies adopt procedures for the competitive bidding for funds in the belief that they improve public welfare, while critics regard such practices as a waste of resources and open to political manipulation. We test the operation of a competitive bidding regime through Tobit models of data drawn from successful and unsuccessful bids in four years of the Single Regeneration Budget programme in England. We derive hypotheses from a model of competitive bidding, the official evaluation of the programme and the pork-barrel literature. Our data and statistical models show that successive rounds did not greatly improve the quality of the bids, did not systematically reward needy communities and diverted resources to ministers' parliamentary seats in some regions.

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  • John, Peter & Ward, Hugh & Dowding, Keith, 2004. "The Bidding Game: Competitive Funding Regimes and the Political Targeting of Urban Programme Schemes," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 34(3), pages 405-428, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:bjposi:v:34:y:2004:i:03:p:405-428_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Gibbons, Stephen & Overman, Henry & Sarvimäki, Matti, 2021. "The local economic impacts of regeneration projects: Evidence from UK's single regeneration budget," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    2. Overman, Henry & Gibbons, Steve & Sarvimaki, Matti, 2017. "The local economic impacts of regeneration projects: Evidence from UK’s Single Regeneration Budget," CEPR Discussion Papers 12311, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Hugh Ward & Peter John, 2008. "A Spatial Model of Competitive Bidding for Government Grants: Why Efficiency Gains Are Limited," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 20(1), pages 47-66, January.
    4. Rhys Andrews, 2007. "Civic Culture and Public Service Failure: An Empirical Exploration," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(4), pages 845-863, April.
    5. Lisa Maria Dellmuth & Michael F Stoffel, 2012. "Distributive politics and intergovernmental transfers: The local allocation of European Union structural funds," European Union Politics, , vol. 13(3), pages 413-433, September.
    6. Rhys Andrews & George A Boyne, 2008. "Organizational Environments and Public-Service Failure: An Empirical Analysis," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 26(4), pages 788-807, August.

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