New research on competition and procurement

One of the Swedish Competition Authority’s tasks is to allocate funding to projects that research within the field of competition policy and public procurement. Nine ongoing projects continue to receive funding. Ten new projects have now been granted financing.

One of the new projects being led by Professor Karl Wennberg at the Stockholm School of Economics will study the impact of competition in the work environments of compulsory and upper-secondary schools. Aspects such as perceived dissatisfaction, accidents and instances of violence will be studied. How have these factors been affected by competition policy? The project will link together the type of school and the consequences for the work environment.

Another project will study the cost-effectiveness of efforts against competition-limiting collaborations. What socio-economic impact does work by competition authorities have when detection cartels and other violations of competition regulations? Dr Mathias Herzing at Stockholm University will look for the answers. The aim is to establish a theoretical framework that can measure welfare profits in relation to market supervision.

What effects might the new competition principle in procurement regulations have? This matter will be highlighted by doctoral student and licentiate in legal science Robert Moldén, under supervision from Professor Lars Henriksson at Stockholm School of Economics. For example, social targets set in public procurements have progressed from being viewed as secondary goals, to becoming strategic. This – and several other elements – will be studied within the project.

Suppliers may demand compensation if they are affected by infringements to procurement regulations. However legal cases show uncertainties in how different laws are to be interpreted. This subject will now be studied by doctoral student Sara Hovi under the supervision of Professor Håkan Andersson at Uppsala University.

How can improved information about care providers influence user choice in primary healthcare? Professor Anders Anell at Lund University will study this question in more detail. The ability to make the relevant choices presupposes the information availability. The project will examine how information about healthcare centres can improve matching and enhance the quality of primary care.

The Telecom market will be studied in different ways in two research projects. The first project will focus on how investments, market outcomes and competition influence the broadband market in Sweden, but also on a regional level. The project will be conducted by Drs Matilda Orth and Florin Maican at the Research Institute of Industrial Economics.

The second Telecom research project will be led by Dr Mark Bernard at Södertörn University. The focus of the project is to study structural  links between vertical markets.

The collaborations and relationships between corporations prior to public procurements – this is one subject that will be studied under the guidance of Professor Grith Skovgaard Ølykke at Copenhagen Business School. It will include more in-depth studies of the grey area between procurement law and competition law.

Additionally, Professor Ragnhildur Helgadottir at Reykjavik University will receive funding to conduct a conference on competition law. Its aim is to enable the exchange of experiences between researchers in competition law and doctoral students in the Nordic countries.

Research grants will also contribute to arranging a research conference that will highlight the borderland between company and competition law and the financial markets. The conference will be organised by Dr Julian Nowag from Juridicum, Lund University.

“It is important to constantly create new knowledge that can contribute to pushing the development of public procurement forwards and for more efficient markets. By awarding funding to research, we contribute to this,” says the Swedish Competition Agency's acting Director General, Karin Lunning.

“The fact we can provide funding to several projects that address the different aspects of public procurement is particularly positive,” she emphasises.