Prague Economic Papers 2013, 22(1):111-124 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.443

Do E-Auctions Realy Improve the Efficiency of Public Procurement? The Case of the Slovak Municipalities

Jan Pavel1, Emilia Sičáková-Beblavá2
1 University of Economics, Prague, W. Churchill Sq. 4, 130 67 Prague 3, Czech Republic (pavelj@vse.cz).
2 Comenius University, Bratislava, Odbojárov 10/A, P.O. Box 129, 820 05 Bratislava 25, Slovak Republic (ema@transparency.sk).

The article deals with the factors which influence efficiency of public procurement in the competitive contracting conducted through e-auctions in 15 Slovak cities. Data cover building and IT contracts awarded in the years 2007-2009. Together 186 observations were used for the analysis. The article starts with a theoretical discussion on the factors influencing efficiency of the procurement including potential impacts of the e-procurement and the e-auction. Than five hypotheses are formulated and the set of data is described. The next part introduces results of the regression analyses. It shows indirect proportion of the relation between the number of the submitted bids and the winning price. Each additional bid brings decrease of the price by approximately 3.4% of the expected price. The use of the e-auctions is connected with an increase of the number of the submitted bids by 0.7, which mean an average decrease of the winning price by approximately 2.4% of the expected price. The article concludes that the application of the e-auctions brings an indirect impact on the winning price. The reason is that it is more transparent than ""standard"" tenders. It probably affects the trust of bidders and increases of their number.

Keywords: municipalities, efficiency, public procurement, electronic auctions
JEL classification: G14, H57

Published: January 1, 2013  Show citation

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Pavel, J., & Sičáková-Beblavá, E. (2013). Do E-Auctions Realy Improve the Efficiency of Public Procurement? The Case of the Slovak Municipalities. Prague Economic Papers, 22(1), 111-124. doi: 10.18267/j.pep.443
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