IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v227y2025ics0921800924002970.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

European funds and green public procurement

Author

Listed:
  • Nicolas, Ruben
  • Titl, Vítězslav
  • Schotanus, Fredo

Abstract

The European Commission co-funds public projects through the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) to stimulate the sustainable economic development of EU Member States. The ESIF budget is about 90 billion euros annually and ESIF beneficiaries are explicitly encouraged to increase their use of Green Public Procurement (GPP) since 2014. In this paper, we study to what extent ESIF co-funding affects the uptake of GPP, using a dataset with all public tender notices in the Czech Republic (2006–2019). Our findings suggest that ESIF co-funding instigates selection behaviour by contracting authorities to improve chances of receiving co-funding. After accounting for selection effects, we find that ESIF co-funding has a small but significant effect on the uptake of GPP. Studying exogenous changes in the ESIF policy conditions, we find that GPP uptake responds to changes in the availability of co-funding and not to stronger policy objectives related to sustainability. Finally, we find that the contracting authority's prior experience with GPP is positively associated with ESIF co-funding and has only a small effect on GPP uptake aside from ESIF.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicolas, Ruben & Titl, Vítězslav & Schotanus, Fredo, 2025. "European funds and green public procurement," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:227:y:2025:i:c:s0921800924002970
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108400
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800924002970
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108400?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sascha O. Becker & Peter H. Egger & Maximilian von Ehrlich, 2013. "Absorptive Capacity and the Growth and Investment Effects of Regional Transfers: A Regression Discontinuity Design with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(4), pages 29-77, November.
    2. Chiappinelli, Olga & Seres, Gyula, 2024. "Optimal discounts in green public procurement," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    3. Sukjin Han & Sungwon Lee, 2019. "Estimation in a generalization of bivariate probit models with dummy endogenous regressors," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(6), pages 994-1015, September.
    4. Lindström, Hanna & Lundberg, Sofia & Marklund, Per-Olov, 2020. "How Green Public Procurement can drive conversion of farmland: An empirical analysis of an organic food policy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    5. Testa, Francesco & Iraldo, Fabio & Frey, Marco & Daddi, Tiberio, 2012. "What factors influence the uptake of GPP (green public procurement) practices? New evidence from an Italian survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 88-96.
    6. Edler, Jakob & Georghiou, Luke, 2007. "Public procurement and innovation--Resurrecting the demand side," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 949-963, September.
    7. Bryngemark, Elina & Söderholm, Patrik & Thörn, Martina, 2023. "The adoption of green public procurement practices: Analytical challenges and empirical illustration on Swedish municipalities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PA).
    8. Becker, Sascha O. & Egger, Peter H. & von Ehrlich, Maximilian, 2010. "Going NUTS: The effect of EU Structural Funds on regional performance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(9-10), pages 578-590, October.
    9. Chiburis, Richard C. & Das, Jishnu & Lokshin, Michael, 2012. "A practical comparison of the bivariate probit and linear IV estimators," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 117(3), pages 762-766.
    10. Diego Badell & Jordi Rosell, 2021. "Are EU Institutions Still Green Actors? An Empirical Study of Green Public Procurement," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(6), pages 1555-1572, November.
    11. Krieger, Bastian & Zipperer, Vera, 2022. "Does green public procurement trigger environmental innovations?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(6).
    12. Bachtrögler-Unger, Julia & Dolls, Mathias & Krolage, Carla & Schüle, Paul & Taubenböck, Hannes & Weigand, Matthias, 2023. "EU cohesion policy on the ground: Analyzing small-scale effects using satellite data," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    13. Shadrina, Elena V. & Vinogradov, Dmitri V. & Kashin, Dmitry V., 2022. "Implicit incentives in green public procurement: Good intentions versus rigid regulations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    14. Simcoe, Timothy & Toffel, Michael W., 2014. "Government green procurement spillovers: Evidence from municipal building policies in California," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 411-434.
    15. Justin M. Stritch & Stuart Bretschneider & Nicole Darnall & Lily Hsueh & Yifan Chen, 2020. "Sustainability Policy Objectives, Centralized Decision Making, and Efficiency in Public Procurement Processes in U.S. Local Governments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-17, August.
    16. Rogge, Karoline S. & Reichardt, Kristin, 2016. "Policy mixes for sustainability transitions: An extended concept and framework for analysis," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(8), pages 1620-1635.
    17. Plaček, Michal & Valentinov, Vladislav & del Campo, Cristina & Vaceková, Gabriela & Ochrana, František & Šumpíková, Markéta, 2021. "Stewardship and administrative capacity in green public procurement in the Czech Republic: Evidence from a large-N survey," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 33.
    18. Chunling Yu & Toru Morotomi & Haiping Yu, 2020. "What Influences Adoption of Green Award Criteria in a Public Contract? An Empirical Analysis of 2018 European Public Procurement Contract Award Notices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-20, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rosell, Jordi, 2023. "Did governments neglect the environment during the COVID-19 pandemic? An empirical analysis of green public procurement," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 835-849.
    2. Ruben Nicolas & Vitezslav Titl & Fredo Schotanus, 2023. "European funds and green public procurement," Working Papers 2310, Utrecht School of Economics.
    3. Krieger, Bastian & Zipperer, Vera, 2022. "Does green public procurement trigger environmental innovations?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(6).
    4. Michal Plaček & Jordi Rosell & Vladislav Valentinov & Milan Křápek, 2024. "Green public procurement in the most visited European museums: a comparison and a mapping," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    5. Bryngemark, Elina & Söderholm, Patrik & Thörn, Martina, 2023. "The adoption of green public procurement practices: Analytical challenges and empirical illustration on Swedish municipalities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PA).
    6. Zhang, Zhaowen & Jiang, Yaohui, 2022. "Can green public procurement change energy efficiency? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    7. Takuro Miyamoto & Naonari Yajima & Takahiro Tsukahara & Toshi H. Arimura, 2020. "Advancement of Green Public Purchasing by Category: Do Municipality Green Purchasing Policies Have Any Role in Japan?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-24, October.
    8. Yanlin Ma & Yuting Liu & Andrea Appolloni & Junqi Liu, 2021. "Does green public procurement encourage firm's environmental certification practice? The mediation role of top management support," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(3), pages 1002-1017, May.
    9. Chiappinelli, Olga & Seres, Gyula, 2024. "Optimal discounts in green public procurement," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    10. Riccardo Crescenzi & Mara Giua, 2018. "One or Many Cohesion Policies of the European Union? On the Diverging Impacts of Cohesion Policy across Member States," SERC Discussion Papers 0230, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    11. Maria Coelho, 2019. "Fiscal Stimulus in a Monetary Union: Evidence from Eurozone Regions," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 67(3), pages 573-617, September.
    12. Ionela Corina Chersan & Valentin Florentin Dumitru & Cãtãlina Gorgan & Vasile Gorgan, 2020. "Green Public Procurement in the Academic Literature," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 22(53), pages 1-82, February.
    13. Panagiotis KOUDOUMAKIS & George BOTZORIS & Angelos PROTOPAPAS, 2021. "The Contribution Of Cohesion Policy To The Development And Convergence Of The Regions Of The European Union," Regional Science Inquiry, Hellenic Association of Regional Scientists, vol. 0(2), pages 277-290, June.
    14. Barone, Guglielmo & David, Francesco & de Blasio, Guido, 2016. "Boulevard of broken dreams. The end of EU funding (1997: Abruzzi, Italy)," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 31-38.
    15. Anne Rainville, 2022. "Green Public Procurement in Mission-Orientated Innovation Systems: Leveraging Voluntary Standards to Improve Sustainability Performance of Municipalities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-22, July.
    16. David Bauer & Joachim Ragnitz & Christian Ochsner, 2018. "Strategies for the Best Equipment and Use of Funds after 2020," ifo Dresden Studien, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 82, October.
    17. Coco, Giuseppe & Monturano, Gianluca & Resce, Giuliano, 2025. "Predicting Delays in Cohesion Infrastructure Projects," Economics & Statistics Discussion Papers esdp25099, University of Molise, Department of Economics.
    18. Sergio Destefanis & Valter Di Giacinto, 2022. "EU structural funds and GDP per capita: Spatial VAR evidence for the European regions," Discussion Paper series in Regional Science & Economic Geography 2022-09, Gran Sasso Science Institute, Social Sciences, revised Oct 2024.
    19. Gathmann, Christina & Helm, Ines & Schönberg, Uta, 2014. "Spillover Effects in Local Labor Markets: Evidence from Mass Layoffs," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100378, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    20. Giuseppe Albanese & Guglielmo Barone & Guido de Blasio, 2023. "The impact of place‐based policies on interpersonal income inequality," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 90(358), pages 508-530, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Green public procurement; EU; Co-funding; Climate policy; Policy evaluation; Sustainable development;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H57 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Procurement
    • D73 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:227:y:2025:i:c:s0921800924002970. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.