Juan Sebastián Ivars es candidato al doctorado por Sciences Po. Tiene un Master en Análisis y Política Económica por Paris School of Economics (PSE) y es Magíster en Economía por la UNLP. Cursó sus estudios de grado en la Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto (UNRC). Fue asistente de investigación en la división de investigación socioeconómica de CAF-Banco de Desarrollo de América Latina y en la UNRC. Fue docente de grado y posgrado en la UNRC y la UNLP y actualmente dicta cursos de Microeconomía en Science Po. Sus investigaciones se centran en temas de organización industrial, economía del comportamiento y otras aplicaciones de microeconomía.

Abstract: This paper investigates the consequences of prohibiting discretion in public procurement. We study whether procurement officials manipulate the estimated value of contracts to avoid crossing regulatory thresholds and how this impacts procurement outcomes. We exploit the unique design of the procurement law in Colombia to document three empirical findings. First, there is substantial manipulation of contracts around the thresholds. Second, manipulation shows up in two different forms: contract shifting and contract splitting. Contract shifting means decreasing the estimated value of the contract while contract splitting refers to dividing a contract into multiple smaller parts. We show that contract shifting is the main form of manipulation in this context. Third, manipulation decreases the final value paid and does not affect the number of bidders or the repetition of winners. However, manipulation decreases the quality of the procedure. We propose a model of public procurement that describes when each type of manipulation is used and provides welfare implications. We find that public officials shift contracts when they face small purchase thresholds and split contracts when they face large ones. Conversely, the model shows that contract splitting is welfare-enhancing for small thresholds and decreasing for large ones. Contract shifting is always welfare-enhancing. We discuss the policy implications.

Autores: Juan Sebastián Ivars (Sciences Po) & Isac Antonio Olave Cruz (Université Paris Dauphine-PSL)

Organizan: Departamento de Economía, Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Revista Económica

Contacto: iie@econo.unlp.edu.ar