Joint bidding is the practice of two or more independent suppliers submitting a single bid, a widespread practice in private and public procurement. This practice may generate efficiencies through synergies and information sharing, but may also be abused to reduce the number of competitors...

Bid rigging is an illegal practice in all OECD member countries and can be investigated and sanctioned under the competition law and rules. The OECD Guidelines provide a strategy for the design of tenders to hinder bid rigging and for the detection of bid rigging during the tender process.

Public procurement contracts (PPCs) of goods, services and works is about one tenth of global gross domestic product. Much research has been conducted on government spending and its aggregate effects, but evidence is scarce at the micro-level. This study exploits sealed-bid PPC auctions of...