The Cost of Social Public Procurement for Governments The Case of Paris City
Authors : Stéphane Saussier, Louise Vidal
Abstract :
Public procurement represents a powerful legal instrument available to contracting authorities to ensure compliance with secondary or non-commercial goals. The possibility of integrating social concerns into public procurement is envisaged in the community directives on public procurement and has also been incorporated in the legal systems of various member states. However, if the use of public procurement to achieve social outcomes is widespread, detailed information about how efficient it is and how it operates is often sketchy and difficult to find. In this paper, we use a unique data set of more than 500 public procurement work contracts signed by the city of Paris between 2011 and 2013. We analyze the influence of introducing social objectives on final bids received by the city. Our results suggest that if, on average, there is no additional cost for the city, the impact will depend on the kind of work the city needs.
JEL codes: H57, H11.