Publicação
Bunching Below Thresholds: Evidence from Portugal
| Resumo: | In a world where frequent fraud and manipulation cases are reported in the media, it is essential to understand how public procurement is developed. Thresholds on prices regulate public procurement to ensure equity, transparency, and fraud reduction. Although, thresholds can also contribute to manipulation in any phase of the procurement cycle. The main question to be answered through this work is if we could detect evidence of bunching on Portuguese public procurement, on local administrators and the national Government. The data used for the analysis were extracted from Portal BASE, concerning 2008 to 2019. Based on the McCrary Density test and bunching techniques, the main objective of the work was reached. Evidence of bunching was detected at the threshold level for most contracts (direct awards, prior consultation, and public tender) of local administrators and the national Government. More evidence of bunching was found in direct awards contracts related to goods and services. Public tenders were the type of contract with lower evidence of bunching. Moreover, these results contribute to a more accurate behaviour study of Portuguese public entities and methodologies to detect evidence of manipulation on public procurement. |
|---|---|
| Autores principais: | Trindade, Teresa Sofia Da Costa |
| Assunto: | Public Procurement Bunching Threshold Contratação Pública Aglomeração Limite de valor |
| Ano: | 2022 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | dissertação de mestrado |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade Nova de Lisboa |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | Repositório Institucional da UNL |
| Resumo: | In a world where frequent fraud and manipulation cases are reported in the media, it is essential to understand how public procurement is developed. Thresholds on prices regulate public procurement to ensure equity, transparency, and fraud reduction. Although, thresholds can also contribute to manipulation in any phase of the procurement cycle. The main question to be answered through this work is if we could detect evidence of bunching on Portuguese public procurement, on local administrators and the national Government. The data used for the analysis were extracted from Portal BASE, concerning 2008 to 2019. Based on the McCrary Density test and bunching techniques, the main objective of the work was reached. Evidence of bunching was detected at the threshold level for most contracts (direct awards, prior consultation, and public tender) of local administrators and the national Government. More evidence of bunching was found in direct awards contracts related to goods and services. Public tenders were the type of contract with lower evidence of bunching. Moreover, these results contribute to a more accurate behaviour study of Portuguese public entities and methodologies to detect evidence of manipulation on public procurement. |
|---|