IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/pseptp/halshs-01524894.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Economic Efficiency and Political Capture in Public Service Contracts

Author

Listed:
  • Philippe Gagnepain

    (PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement)

  • Marc Ivaldi

    (TSE-R - Toulouse School of Economics - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - UT - Université de Toulouse - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

We consider contracts for public transport services between a public authority and a transport operator. We build a structural endogenous switching model where the contract choice results from the combined effects of the incentivization scheme aimed at monitoring the operator's efficiency and the political agenda followed by the regulator to account for the voice of private interests. Our results support theoretical predictions as they suggest that cost-plus contracts entail a higher cost for society than fixed-price contracts but allow the public authority to leave a rent to a subset of individuals. Accounting for transfers to interest groups in welfare computations reduces the welfare gap between cost-plus and fixed-price regimes.

Suggested Citation

  • Philippe Gagnepain & Marc Ivaldi, 2017. "Economic Efficiency and Political Capture in Public Service Contracts," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-01524894, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:pseptp:halshs-01524894
    DOI: 10.1111/joie.12118
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Philippe Gagnepain & Marc Ivaldi & David Martimort, 2013. "The Cost of Contract Renegotiation: Evidence from the Local Public Sector," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(6), pages 2352-2383, October.
    2. Bajari, Patrick & Tadelis, Steven, 2001. "Incentives versus Transaction Costs: A Theory of Procurement Contracts," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 32(3), pages 387-407, Autumn.
    3. Jean Beuve & Marian Moszoro & Stéphane Saussier, 2019. "Political Contestability and Contract Rigidity: An Analysis of Procurement Contracts," Post-Print halshs-02057712, HAL.
    4. Harry F. Campbell, 1975. "Deadweight Loss and Commodity Taxation in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 8(3), pages 441-447, August.
    5. Marian W. Moszoro & Pablo T. Spiller, 2012. "Third-Party Opportunism and the Nature of Public Contracts," NBER Working Papers 18636, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Philippe Gagnepain & Marc Ivaldi, 2002. "Incentive Regulatory Policies: The Case of Public Transit Systems in France," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 33(4), pages 605-629, Winter.
    7. Laffont, Jean-Jacques & Tirole, Jean, 1986. "Using Cost Observation to Regulate Firms," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 614-641, June.
    8. Roemer, John E. & Silvestre, Joaquim, 1992. "A welfare comparison of private and public monopoly," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 67-81, June.
    9. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    10. Isabelle Brocas & Kitty Chan & Isabelle Perrigne, 2006. "Regulation under Asymmetric Information in Water Utilities," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 62-66, May.
    11. Vuong, Quang H, 1989. "Likelihood Ratio Tests for Model Selection and Non-nested Hypotheses," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(2), pages 307-333, March.
    12. Jonathan Levin & Steven Tadelis, 2010. "Contracting For Government Services: Theory And Evidence From U.S. Cities," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 507-541, September.
    13. Kawasaki, Seiichi & McMillan, John, 1987. "The design of contracts: Evidence from Japanese subcontracting," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 327-349, September.
    14. Torsten Persson & Guido Tabellini, 2002. "Political Economics: Explaining Economic Policy," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262661314, December.
    15. Frank A. Wolak, 1994. "An Econometric Analysis of the Asymmetric Information, Regulator-Utility Interaction," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 34, pages 1-12.
    16. Laffont, Jean-Jacques & Tirole, Jean, 1987. "Auctioning Incentive Contracts," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(5), pages 921-937, October.
    17. Laffont, Jean-Jacques, 1996. "Industrial policy and politics," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 1-27.
    18. Ali Yurukoglu & Claire Lim, 2014. "Dynamic Natural Monopoly Regulation: Time Inconsistency, Asymmetric Information, and Political Environments," 2014 Meeting Papers 530, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    19. repec:adr:anecst:y:1994:i:34:p:02 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Jean-Jacques Laffont & Jean Tirole, 1993. "A Theory of Incentives in Procurement and Regulation," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262121743, December.
    21. Isabelle Perrigne & Quang Vuong, 2011. "Nonparametric Identification of a Contract Model With Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(5), pages 1499-1539, September.
    22. Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo, 2000. "Reputation Effects and the Limits of Contracting: A Study of the Indian Software Industry," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 989-1017.
    23. Loeb, Martin & Magat, Wesley A, 1979. "A Decentralized Method for Utility Regulation," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 22(2), pages 399-404, October.
    24. Pint, Ellen M., 1991. "Nationalization vs. regulation of monopolies : The effects of ownership on efficiency," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 131-164, March.
    25. Florens, Jean-Pierre & Ivaldi, Marc & Larribeau, Sophie, 1996. "Sobolev Estimation of Approximate Regressions," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(5), pages 753-772, December.
    26. Ballard, Charles L & Shoven, John B & Whalley, John, 1985. "General Equilibrium Computations of the Marginal Welfare Costs of Taxes in the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(1), pages 128-138, March.
    27. Gary S. Becker, 1983. "A Theory of Competition Among Pressure Groups for Political Influence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 98(3), pages 371-400.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hörcher, Daniel & Tirachini, Alejandro, 2021. "A review of public transport economics," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    2. Aguiar, Luis & Gagnepain, Philippe, 2022. "Absorptive capacity, knowledge spillovers and incentive contracts," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    3. Joanna Piechucka, 2021. "Cost efficiency and endogenous regulatory choices: evidence from the transport industry in France," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 25-46, February.
    4. Joanna Piechucka, 2020. "Cost Efficiency and Endogenous Regulatory Choices: Evidence from the Transport Industry in France," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1851, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Ariane Charpin & Joanna Piechucka, 2020. "Merger Efficiency Gains: Evidence from a Large Transport Merger in France," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1843, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    6. Levent Kutlu & Shasha Liu & Robin C. Sickles, 2022. "Cost, Revenue, and Profit Function Estimates," Springer Books, in: Subhash C. Ray & Robert G. Chambers & Subal C. Kumbhakar (ed.), Handbook of Production Economics, chapter 16, pages 641-679, Springer.
    7. An, Yonghong & Hong, Shengjie & Zhang, Daiqiang, 2023. "A structural analysis of simple contracts," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 236(2).
    8. Dementiev, Andrei, 2018. "Contracting out public transport services to vertical partnerships," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 126-134.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gagnepain, Philippe & Ivaldi, Marc, 2009. "Contract choice, incentives and political capture in public transport services," UC3M Working papers. Economics we096641, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
    2. Philippe Gagnepain & Marc Ivaldi & David Martimort, 2013. "The Cost of Contract Renegotiation: Evidence from the Local Public Sector," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(6), pages 2352-2383, October.
    3. Gagnepain, Philippe & Ivaldi, Marc, 2010. "Regulatory Schemes and Political Capture in a Local Public Sector," IDEI Working Papers 609, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    4. Philippe Gagnepain & Marc Ivaldi & David Martimort, 2010. "The renegotiation cost of public transport services contracts," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-00622961, HAL.
    5. repec:hal:wpaper:hal-00710639 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. An, Yonghong & Hong, Shengjie & Zhang, Daiqiang, 2023. "A structural analysis of simple contracts," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 236(2).
    7. Joanna Piechucka, 2021. "Cost efficiency and endogenous regulatory choices: evidence from the transport industry in France," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 25-46, February.
    8. repec:hal:psewpa:hal-00710639 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Ivaldi, Marc & Gagnepain, Philippe, 2010. "Contract Choice, Incentives, and Political Capture in the Public Sector," CEPR Discussion Papers 8053, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Yonghong An & Daiqiang Zhang, 2018. "Simple menus of cost‐based contracts with monotone optimal effort," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 20(5), pages 742-756, October.
    11. Philippe Gagnepain & Marc Ivaldi, 2002. "Incentive Regulatory Policies: The Case of Public Transit Systems in France," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 33(4), pages 605-629, Winter.
    12. Garrett, Daniel F., 2020. "Payoff Implications of Incentive Contracting," TSE Working Papers 20-1140, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    13. Ginés Rus & M. Socorro, 2010. "Infrastructure Investment and Incentives with Supranational Funding," Transition Studies Review, Springer;Central Eastern European University Network (CEEUN), vol. 17(3), pages 551-567, September.
    14. Ayako Suzuki, 2012. "Yardstick Competition to Elicit Private Information: An Empirical Analysis," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 40(4), pages 313-338, June.
    15. Committee, Nobel Prize, 2014. "Market power and regulation (scientific background)," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2014-2, Nobel Prize Committee.
    16. Axel Gautier & Anne Yvrande-Billon, 2013. "Contract Renewal as an Incentive Device. An Application to the French Urban Public Transport Sector," Review of Economics and Institutions, Università di Perugia, vol. 4(1).
    17. Alberto Cavaliere & Simona Scabrosetti, 2008. "Privatization And Efficiency: From Principals And Agents To Political Economy," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 685-710, September.
    18. Guerriero, Carmine, 2013. "The political economy of incentive regulation: Theory and evidence from US states," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 91-107.
    19. Ivaldi, Marc & Pouyet, Jerome, 2018. "Eliciting the regulation of an economic system: The case of the French rail industry," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 21-30.
    20. Tadelis, Steven, 2012. "Public procurement design: Lessons from the private sector," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 297-302.
    21. Marian W. Moszoro & Pablo T. Spiller, 2018. "Implications of Third Parties for Contract Design," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 45(1), pages 5-16, March.
    22. Giuseppe Cinquegrana & Serena Migliardo & Domenico Sarno, 2016. "Comparative analysis of private and public provision of the water and waste services by the Italian municipalities," ECONOMIA PUBBLICA, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(3), pages 149-176.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public Service Contracts;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:pseptp:halshs-01524894. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Caroline Bauer (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.