Evaluating quality or lowest price: consequences for small and medium-sized enterprises in public procurement

This study investigates the effect of evaluating the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT) in public procurement rather than lowest price. According to the European Union (EU), evaluations based on MEAT, rather than lowest price, give an advantage to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in winning public procurement contracts because such firms are viewed as sources of innovation. Thus, MEAT as an evaluation criterion is recommended throughout the EU. Using procurement data from Sweden, I find no significant effect on SME participation in procurement calls for tender as a result of the use of MEAT in firm evaluations. However, large firms significantly increase their participation when MEAT is evaluated. Even more importantly, micro, small and medium-sized firms’ probability of winning procurement contracts significantly decreases when MEAT rather than lowest price is used as an evaluative criterion. Thus, evaluation in terms of MEAT increases large firms’ bids and success rates; hence, this policy is counterproductive. The reasons SMEs are disadvantaged as a result of evaluations based on MEAT are, however, not examined in this paper and require further research.