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Government Intervention and the Macroeconomy: Micro-evidence on the Transmission of Government Procurement

Project description

Understanding public procurement’s role in the overall economy

Governments typically allocate between 10 % and 20 % of GDP to public procurement, with the percentage varying by country and year. But how exactly does public procurement influence macroeconomic outcomes? The ERC-funded fromMicroGtoY project seeks to explore the mechanisms through which government procurement impacts the overall economy. Leveraging data from millions of public procurement contracts across multiple countries, the study will analyse various aspects of these contracts, such as their value and the awarding institution. Additionally, it will integrate this data with firm-level balance sheets and inter-firm transaction records. This comprehensive approach will enable the identification of inefficiencies and an examination of how government procurement shapes the economy, including its potential impact on the allocation of economic activity across space, corruption, and governments’ ability to provide public goods efficiently.

Objective

Depending on the country and year, governments spend between 10% and 20% of GDP on public procurement.

I collect data on millions of public procurement contracts awarded in many countries. I have detailed information about the contracts (value, awarding institution, etc.), and merge this information with firm-level balance sheet and firm-to-firm transaction data. This allows me to study the transmission mechanisms from government procurement to the aggregate economy. The aim is to investigate the particular economic channels through which outcomes in public procurement permeate to the rest of the economy, and to identify the sources of inefficiencies in the process.

My proposal is divided into three blocks that aim to answer crucial questions about the role that public procurement plays in determining macroeconomic outcomes.

1. How costly is governments’ home-bias (i.e. governments buy disproportionally and unpredictably more from local firms) for aggregate productivity and welfare in Europe?

2. What are the effects of corruption in procurement on firms’ dynamics?

3. What are the factors determining the aggregate price at which governments buy goods and services?
What are the implications for consumers’ welfare?

The novelty of the data and the complex interactions between public procurement outcomes, economic distortions and firms’ decisions make this research proposal ambitious and place it at the research frontier.

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) ERC-2023-COG

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Host institution

UNIVERSIDAD POMPEU FABRA
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 464 062,00
Address
PLACA DE LA MERCE, 10-12
08002 Barcelona
Spain

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Region
Este Cataluña Barcelona
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 464 062,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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