IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/trapol/v47y2016icp119-126.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Degrees of freedom and innovations in construction contracts

Author

Listed:
  • Nyström, Johan
  • Nilsson, Jan-Eric
  • Lind, Hans

Abstract

DB (Design and build) and DBB (Design-bid-build) represent two different contracting forms in construction. The first provides the contractor degrees of freedom in design, which enables innovation. DBB is the safe and traditional contracting form, where the client is responsible for the design and the contractor builds accordingly. Using a case study approach of five Swedish road construction projects, the present paper compares these contracting forms in terms of innovation. In this, the client's labelling of a contract being DB or DBB is taken at face value. It is established that the actual degrees of freedom for the contractors are highly restricted and that no important difference can be seen between the contracting forms regarding innovation. This implies that it is no reason to expect more innovation simply by labelling contracts as DB. Rational explanations for the usage of DB-contracts with bounds on the degrees of freedom are also suggested. Policy implications for promoting innovation in infrastructure contracting finalise the study.

Suggested Citation

  • Nyström, Johan & Nilsson, Jan-Eric & Lind, Hans, 2016. "Degrees of freedom and innovations in construction contracts," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 119-126.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:47:y:2016:i:c:p:119-126
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2016.01.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X16300051
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tranpol.2016.01.004?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. Oliver Hart & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1997. "The Proper Scope of Government: Theory and an Application to Prisons," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(4), pages 1127-1161.
    2. Jean-Jacques Laffont & Jean Tirole, 1993. "A Theory of Incentives in Procurement and Regulation," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262121743, December.
    3. Ewerhart, Christian & Fieseler, Karsten, 2003. "Procurement Auctions and Unit-Price Contracts," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 34(3), pages 569-581, Autumn.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yarmukhamedov, Sherzod & Smith, Andrew S.J. & Thiebaud, Jean-Christophe, 2020. "Competitive tendering, ownership and cost efficiency in road maintenance services in Sweden: A panel data analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 194-204.

    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. Henrekson, Magnus & Johansson, Dan, 2010. "Firm Growth, Institutions and Structural Transformation," Ratio Working Papers 150, The Ratio Institute.
    2. David Martimort & Flavio Menezes & Myrna Wooders & ELISABETTA IOSSA & DAVID MARTIMORT, 2015. "The Simple Microeconomics of Public-Private Partnerships," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 17(1), pages 4-48, February.
    3. Antonio Sánchez Soliño, 2019. "Sustainability of Public Services: Is Outsourcing the Answer?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Zheng Wang & John S. Heywood & Guangliang Ye, 2020. "Optimal mixed ownership: A contract view," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(1), pages 45-68, January.
    5. Jean-Etienne de Bettignies & Thomas W. Ross, 2010. "The Economics of Public–Private Partnerships: Some Theoretical Contributions," Chapters, in: Graeme A. Hodge & Carsten Greve & Anthony E. Boardman (ed.), International Handbook on Public–Private Partnerships, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Paul H. Jensen & Robin E. Stonecash, 2004. "The Efficiency of Public Sector Outsourcing Contracts: A Literature Review," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2004n29, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    7. Bergman, Mats A. & Johansson, Per & Lundberg, Sofia & Spagnolo, Giancarlo, 2016. "Privatization and quality: Evidence from elderly care in Sweden," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 109-119.
    8. Matthew Holian, 2009. "Outsourcing in US cities, ambulances and elderly voters," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 141(3), pages 421-445, December.
    9. Jamasb, T. & Mota, R. & Newbery, D. & Pollitt, M., 2004. "‘Electricity Sector Reform in Developing Countries: A Survey of Empirical Evidence on Determinants and Performance’," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0439, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    10. Adwoa Asantewaa & Tooraj Jamasb & Manuel Llorca, 2022. "Electricity Sector Reform Performance in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Parametric Distance Function Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-29, March.
    11. Martimort, David & Pouyet, Jerome, 2008. "To build or not to build: Normative and positive theories of public-private partnerships," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 393-411, March.
    12. Dormont, Brigitte & Milcent, Carine, 2012. "Ownership and Hospital Productivity," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 1205, CEPREMAP.
    13. Alena Podaneva & Pierre Picard, 2023. "Facility Management Services in UK Hospitals: in-house or outsourcing," DEM Discussion Paper Series 23-15, Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg.
    14. repec:dau:papers:123456789/12066 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Cornett, Marcia Millon & Guo, Lin & Khaksari, Shahriar & Tehranian, Hassan, 2010. "The impact of state ownership on performance differences in privately-owned versus state-owned banks: An international comparison," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 74-94, January.
    16. Marian MOSZORO, 2014. "Efficient Public-Private Capital Structures," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 85(1), pages 103-126, March.
    17. Elisabetta Iossa & David Martimort, 2011. "The Theory of Incentives Applied to the Transport Sector," Chapters, in: André de Palma & Robin Lindsey & Emile Quinet & Roger Vickerman (ed.), A Handbook of Transport Economics, chapter 29, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    18. Wigger, Berthold U. & Weizsäcker, Robert K. von, 1999. "Öffentliche oder private Umsetzung des staatlichen Bildungsauftrages? : Eine Analyse auf der Grundlage der Theorie unvollständiger Verträge," Discussion Papers 574, Institut fuer Volkswirtschaftslehre und Statistik, Abteilung fuer Volkswirtschaftslehre.
    19. Oliver Hart, 2003. "Incomplete Contracts and Public Ownership: Remarks, and an Application to Public-Private Partnerships," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(486), pages 69-76, March.
    20. Engel, Eduardo & Fischer, Ronald & Galetovic, Alexander, 2018. "The joy of flying: Efficient airport PPP contracts," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 131-146.
    21. Lulfesmann, Christoph, 2007. "On the virtues of privatization when government is benevolent," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 17-34, September.

    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:trapol:v:47:y:2016:i:c:p:119-126. 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/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30473/description#description .

    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.