Bid Rigging in Public Procurement

By Robert Clark & Decio Coviello – 

Given enough bidders, auctions represent an efficient way for governments to ensure the provision of goods and services. However, calls for tender often involve few participants who may sometimes coordinate their actions to rig auction outcomes and deter the entry of potential competitors, thus resulting in much higher prices paid by governments. We summarize findings from an examination of behavior in calls for tender in procurement auctions in the