NBER Publications by Gregory Lewis

Procurement projects often encounter unanticipated problems. Deadlines and penalties are one important instrument used to incentivize contractors to adapt their plans. We develop a theory of highway procurement in which contractors must modify their construction rate following a productivity shock. We model how time incentives affect the work rate and time taken, characterizing the efficient contract design. Using new micro-level data from Minnesota that includes day-by-day information on work plans, actual outcomes and delays, we find strong evidence supporting the theory. As an application, we build an econometric model that endogenizes adaptation, and simulate how different incentive structures affect outcomes and the variance of contractor payments. Accounting for the traffic delay...

In public sector procurement, social welfare often depends on the time taken to complete the contract. A leading example is highway construction, where slow completion times inflict a negative externality on commuters. Recently, highway departments have introduced innovative contracting methods based on scoring auctions that give contractors explicit time incentives. We characterize equilibrium bidding and efficient design of these contracts. We then gather an extensive data set of highway repair projects awarded by the California Department of Transportation between 2003 and 2008 that includes both innovative and standard contracts. Comparing similar con- tracts in which the innovative design was and was not used, we show that the welfare gains to commuters from quicker completion substan...