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Maintaining Competition in Recurrent Procurement Contracts: A case study on the London Bus Market

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Abstract

Under recurrent procurement, the awarding of a contract to a firm may put it in an advantageous position in future tenders, which may reduce competition over time. The objective of this paper is to study the dynamics of competition for tendered contracts, focusing on factors that may generate incumbent advantage. Particular attention is given to learning economies, sunk costs of entry and switching costs for the procurer. The paper then applies these insights to analyse empirically the evolution of competition in the market for local bus services in London.

Suggested Citation

  • Elisabetta Iossa & Michael Waterson, 2017. "Maintaining Competition in Recurrent Procurement Contracts: A case study on the London Bus Market," CEIS Research Paper 400, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 24 Feb 2017.
    • Handle: RePEc:rtv:ceisrp:400
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    Cited by:

    1. Vigren, Andreas, 2020. "The Distance Factor in Swedish Bus Contracts How far are operators willing to go?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 188-204.
    2. Dementiev, Andrei & Han, Hyen Jin, 2020. "A theory of deregulation in public transport," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    3. 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.
    4. Papaioannou, Panagiotis & Georgiadis, Georgios & Nikolaidou, Anastasia & Politis, Ioannis, 2020. "Public Transport tendering and contracting arrangements in countries under regulatory transition: The case of Cyprus," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    5. Bru, Lluís & Cardona, Daniel & Sákovics, József, 2023. "Block sourcing plus," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 305(3), pages 1130-1140.
    6. Antonio Massarutto & Andrea Garlatti & Stefano Miani & Ernesto Cassetta & Silvia Iacuzzi, 2021. "Evaluating the performance of local SoEs as output‐maximizing entities: The case of Friuli Venezia Giulia," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 92(2), pages 307-332, June.
    7. Merkert, Rico & Mulley, Corinne & Hakim, Md Mahbubul, 2018. "Trade-offs between transaction cost, operation cost and innovation in the context of procurement and asset specificity – The example of the bus industry," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 173-179.
    8. Preston, John & Walters, Jackie, 2020. "Workshop 1 report: Models of mainstream public transport provision," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Dynamic Competition; Procurement and Incumbent advantage;

    JEL classification:

    • L24 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Contracting Out; Joint Ventures
    • L92 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Railroads and Other Surface Transportation
    • L40 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - General

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