In public sector procurement, social welfare often depends on the time taken to complete the contract. A leading example is highway construction, where slow completion times inflict a negative externality on commuters. Recently, highway departments have introduced innovative contracting methods that give contractors explicit time incentives. We characterize equilibrium bidding and efficient design of these contracts. We then gather a unique data set of highway repair projects awarded by the Minnesota Department of Transportation that includes both innovative and standard contracts. Descriptive analysis shows that for both contract types, contractors respond to the incentives as the theory predicts, both at the bidding stage and after the contract is awarded. Next we build a structural econometric model that endogenizes project completion times, and perform counterfactual policy analysis. Our estimates suggest that switching from standard contracts to designs with socially efficient time incentives would raise commuter surplus relative to the contractor's costs by 19% of the contract value; or in terms of the 2009 Mn/DOT budget, $290 million.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number
14855.
Length: Date of creation: Apr 2009 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14855
Note: IO Contact details of provider: Postal: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A. Phone: 617-868-3900 Email: Web page: http://www.nber.org More information through EDIRC
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: ().
Related research
Keywords:
Find related papers by JEL classification: D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, and Operations D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure and Pricing - - - Auctions H57 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Procurement L0 - Industrial Organization - - General L74 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Primary Products and Construction - - - Construction L78 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Primary Products and Construction - - - Government Policy
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: