TY  - JOUR
AU  - Ashenfelter,Orley
AU  - Ashmore,David
AU  - Filer,Randall
TI  - Contract Form and Procurement Costs: The Impact of Compulsory Multiple Contractor Laws in Construction
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 5916
PY  - 1997
Y2  - February 1997
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5916
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5916.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Orley C. Ashenfelter
Industrial Relations Section
Firestone Library
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ  08544
Tel: 609/258-4040
Fax: 609/258-2907
E-Mail: c6789@princeton.edu

Randall Filer
The Graduate Center
CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016-4309
Tel: 212/772-5499
E-Mail: rfiler@hunter.cuny.edu
AB  - It is claimed that many regulatory rules enforce inefficiencies in order to achieve the appearance of cost control.  We assess the importance of these claims by measuring the effect of New York state's compulsory multiple contractor law on the cost of public construction in New York City.  Multiple contractor laws, which exist in many states, prohibit the use of general contractors in order to promote the appearance of competition. Contrasts of construction costs between buildings with identical blind cost estimates indicate that this law increases public construction costs by 8% and increases construction delays by more than a calendar year.
ER  -