arbiter
JournalsPricingAccount

Number of bidders, level of competition, and bid pricing in public procurement

Bagassé Hervé Kafimbou

Journal of Public Finance and Public Choice2026https://doi.org/10.1332/25156918y2026d000000030article
ABDC C
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

This article examines the factors that influence competition and how competition affects prices in public contracts in Burkina Faso. It is based on a data set comprising 1,604 contracts awarded by various contracting authorities between 2016 and 2018. Two models are used: a negative binomial model to identify the determinants of competition, and an instrumental variable model based on heteroskedasticity to analyze the impact of competition on the winning bid price. The results show that an optimal number of seven to nine bidders is crucial to maximize competition, whereas the current average is only five. Achieving this range could lead to average savings per contract of between 0.5 percent and 3.15 percent, or approximately 3.7 million CFA francs. These savings highlight the need to reform public procurement policies to promote greater competition and improve efficiency.

Open paper page →

Cite this paper

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1332/25156918y2026d000000030

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{bagassé2026,
  title        = {{Number of bidders, level of competition, and bid pricing in public procurement}},
  author       = {Bagassé Hervé Kafimbou},
  journal      = {Journal of Public Finance and Public Choice},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1332/25156918y2026d000000030},
}

Paste directly into BibTeX, Zotero, or your reference manager.

Flag this paper

Number of bidders, level of competition, and bid pricing in public procurement

Flags are reviewed by the Arbiter methodology team within 5 business days.

Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.