Empirical Analysis of Competition in Public Procurement

Government is using set-aside auctions as a policy tool to support small business enterprises. Having a policy of set-aside auctions however does not guarantee market effectiveness. Two opposite effects that influenced either losses by excluding large firms or profits of public buyers have been identified in existing studies. The questions therefore arise which of two effects dominates and if other factors are significant in explaining gains or losses of public buyers. In this study, an analysis of dataset on public procurement e-auctions for food product market in Republic Tatarstan and Nizhny Novgorod region that covers the period 2018-2020 has been provided in order to answer those questions. Using descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression, the research is expected to show if any difference in set-aside auctions effectiveness between regions, among primary sum’s intervals and which of two effects prevails in general. A machine learning method will help to identify the impact of COVID-19 crisis on buyer’s gains or losses in selected dataset. We have found out that set-aside auctions are effective in Republic Tatarstan but ineffective in Nizhny Novgorod region. During COVID-19 crisis the budgetary saving has increased due to additional supply in Nizhny Novgorod region and has decreased due to reduction in the number of participants in Republic Tatarstan.