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Government Outsourcing: Public Contracting with Private Monopoly

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  • Emmanuelle Auriol
  • Pierre M. Picard

Abstract

The paper studies the impact of government budget constraint in a pure adverse selection problem of monopoly regulation. The government maximizes total surplus but incurs some cost of public funds. An alternative to regulation is proposed in which firms are free to enter the market and to choose their price and output levels. However the government can contract ex-post with the private firms. This ex-post contracting set-up allows more flexibility than traditional regulation where government commits to both investment and operation cash-flows. This is especially relevant in case of high technological uncertainties.

Suggested Citation

  • Emmanuelle Auriol & Pierre M. Picard, 2006. "Government Outsourcing: Public Contracting with Private Monopoly," CESifo Working Paper Series 1733, CESifo Group Munich.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1733
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    File URL: http://www.cesifo-group.de/DocDL/cesifo1_wp1733.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    5. Laffont, Jean-Jacques & Tirole, Jean, 1991. "Privatization and Incentives," Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(0), pages 84-105, Special I.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Jullien, Bruno & Pouyet, Jérôme & Sand-Zantman, Wilfried, 2009. "Contracting and Regulation under the Threat of Duplication," IDEI Working Papers 563, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    2. Auriol, Emmanuelle & Blanc, Aymeric, 2009. "Capture and corruption in public utilities: The cases of water and electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 203-216, June.
    3. Pierre M. Picard & Ridwan D. Rusli, 2012. "State Owned Firms: Private Debt, Cost Revelation and Welfare," CREA Discussion Paper Series 12-10, Center for Research in Economic Analysis, University of Luxembourg.
    4. Qiu, Larry D. & Wang, Susheng, 2011. "BOT projects: Incentives and efficiency," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 127-138, January.
    5. Auriol, Emmanuelle & Picard, Pierre M., 2013. "A theory of BOT concession contracts," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 187-209.
    6. Michael Klien, 2014. "Corporatization and the Behavior of Public Firms: How Shifting Control Rights Affects Political Interference in Water Prices," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 44(4), pages 393-422, June.
    7. Gilles Edouard Espinosa & Caroline Hillairet & Benjamin Jourdain & Monique Pontier, 2013. "Reducing the debt : is it optimal to outsource an investment?," Papers 1305.4879, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2015.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    privatization; soft-budget constraint; adverse selection; regulation; natural monopoly;

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • L33 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Comparison of Public and Private Enterprise and Nonprofit Institutions; Privatization; Contracting Out
    • L43 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Legal Monopolies and Regulation or Deregulation
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation

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