Master of Science in Business Administration

Updated A.Y. 2026-2027

University of Rome Tor Vergata – Faculty of Economics

Academic Year 2026-2027

Master of Sciences in Business Administration

Economics of Procurement

https://economia.uniroma2.it/master-science/ba/corso/115/

MODULE’s coordinator:

Prof. Gustavo Piga e-mail: gustavo.piga@uniroma2.it tel.: +39-06/7259-5701

CONTRIBUTORS TO THE MODULE:

Prof. Nicola Dimitri (8 hours)

Prof. Gustavo Piga (22 hours)

Dr. Aldo Ravazzi (6 hours)

The Program

Sourcing and procurement are becoming a key strategic function of modern economic organizations. These Lectures are meant to support the student with basic procurement tools.  

The topics:

1) Contracts for sourcing and competitive procurement;

2) Corruption and ethics in sourcing;

3) Centralizing procurement: the trade-offs;

4) Quality and procurement;

5) Award Procedures;

6) Contracting Strategies;

7) SMEs and Procurement;

8) Green and Sustainable Procurement,

9) Scoring rules in procurement;

10) Innovation and procurement.

The Material:

The teacher will refer the student, by the end of each week of each week, to the slides available on Prof. Piga’s website, where she/he will find relevant material on the basis of the following textbooks:

• Handbook of Procurement, edited by Nicola Dimitri, Gustavo Piga and Giancarlo Spagnolo (to be purchased at discount) Cambridge University Press 2) Handouts.
• Jean Tirole and Stéphane Saussier http://www.cae-eco.fr/IMG/pdf/cae-note022-env2.pdf
• «The Economics of Public Procurement », Francesco Decarolis and Stjepan Srhoj, Journal of Economic Surveys, forthcoming.

Exam rules: Presence in class is essential and monitored with signatures. Students with 30 hours presence at least will only face an oral exam with Prof. Piga.

Students with less than 30 hours presence will also pass a written exam and, if passed, an oral exam.

Office Hours, room of Prof. Piga (3^rd floor, Building B): via appointment via e-mail.

Lesson 1, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, November 2^nd, 2026, 9-11 AM

Lesson 2, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, November 3^rd, 2026, 9-11 AM

Lesson 3, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, November 4^th, 2026, 9-11 AM

Lesson 4, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, November 9^th, 2026, 9-11 AM

Lesson 5, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, November 10^th, 2026, 9-11 AM

Lesson 6, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, November 11^th, 2026, 9-11 AM

Lesson 11, Prof. Aldo Ravazzi, Monday, November 23^th, 2026, 9-11 AM

Lesson 12, Prof. Aldo Ravazzi, Tuesday, November 24^th, 2026, 9-11 AM

Lesson 13, Prof. Aldo Ravazzi, Wednesday, November 25^th, 2026, 9-11 AM

Lesson 14, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, November 30^th, 2026, 9-11 AM

Lesson 15, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, December 1^st, 2026, 9-11 AM

Lesson 16, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, December 2^nd, 2026, 9-11 AM

Lesson 17, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, December 7^th, 2026, 9-11 AM

Lesson 18, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, December 9th, 2026, 9-11 AM

Prof. Piga will cover the following topics:

Definitions and benchmarking of procurement practices.

Competition and Quality in Procurement: Substitutes or Complements?  Summing-up.

Ethics in procurement. Definition of corruption. Modalities of corruption in procurement. Corruption, competition and collusion.  Ethics in Procurement. The role of transparency. The role of checks and controls. E-procurement and corruption. The Challenge of e-proc and Centralization or the e-proc and Centralization challenges? Models of E-procurement.

Procurement and small firms.

Centralization of procurement in complex organizations. Benchmarking across public administrations. Possible systems of governance. Impact of centralization. The issue of competences.

Dr. Aldo Ravazzi will cover the following topics in the sustainable and green procurement literature and public debate, related to the development and implementation of Green Public Procurement (GPP) as an environmental policy tool:

- economics of sustainable development and environmental policy: motivations for GPP

- GPP priorities: climate, biodiversity, circular economy

- greening public and private consumption, production and investment

- do we need GPP

- GPP design and enforcement

Lessons 7, 8, 9, and 10, Prof. Nicola Dimitri, Wednesday, November 18^th, 2026, 2-4PM, Thursday, November 19^th, 2026, 10AM-1PM and 2 to 5 PM.

Centralizing procurement: the trade-offs;

Award procedures.

-           Competitive Tendering

-           Negotiation

Procurement Contracting Strategies

-           Fixed Price Contracts

-           Cost plus fee contracts

-           Incentive contracts

Competitive Procurement Design:

-           Winner’s Curse, Buyer’s Curse

-           Information and the Choice of Auctions

The choice of the awarding criteria: LP vs MEAT

• Weighting price and quality
• Introduction to scoring rules
• Application of scoring rules in procurement:
• Manipulability and collusion

A brief profile of the teachers:

Nicola Dimitri:

Nicola Dimitri is Full Professor of Economics at the University of Siena since 2003. Since 1995 I am Life Member of Clare Hall College, Cambridge UK. Moreover, I am member of the Center for Blockchain Technologies, University College London, and of the Blockchain Center of the University of Zurich. I was Italian Delegate to the 7th Framework Program (Cooperation-SSH), Deputy Rector and Head of the Economics Department of the University of Siena. I have been Chair in Innovation Procurement at the Maastricht School of Management (NL) economic consultant of CONSIP, the Italian Central Procurement Body, economic consultant of the Japanese Embassy in Rome. Furthermore, I have been consultant of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Dutch Ministry of Defence and the Dutch Ministry of Justice for procurements design. My interest and professional experience are in procurement, auctions, market design, game and decision theory, contract theory, economics of innovation, health and pharmaceutical economics, blockchain and cryptocurrencies. I published several articles in international peer reviewed journals and contributed, as author and editor, to several books. In particular, jointly with Gustavo Piga and Giancarlo Spagnolo, I edited the Handbook of Public Procurement, Cambridge University Press (2006) while, jointly with Wim Naudé and Thomas Gries, I co-authored a volume on Artificial Intelligence and Economics, Cambridge University Press (2024).

Aldo Ravazzi Douvan:

Aldo Ravazzi Douvan is a chief economist at the Italian Ministry of Environment & Energy Security, Directorate for EU, International Affairs & Sustainable Finance. President of OECD-Wpfieg committee on green & sustainable finance; past-president of the OECD committees on: a) biodiversity, water & ecosystems; b) environmental performance country reviews; c) environmental taxation; d) integration of environmental & economic policies. Unfccc Italian expert and Ipcc observer expert, Irp steering committee, vice-president Plan Bleu for environment & development of Mediterranean. MSc in Project Analysis, Finance & Investment at York University. He is contract professor at Roma Tor Vergata on Environmental Global Governance and at Roma Luiss on Sustainable Development & Climate Policies. Co-Founder of Iaere, he is an Eaere Policy Committee member. GCET Award 2022 for the contribution to environmental taxation research & policies.

Gustavo Piga:

Gustavo Piga, Ph. D. in Economics at Columbia University, is Full Professor of Economics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, where he chairs the Master in Procurement Management. He is the co-editor of the Handbook of Procurement, edited by Cambridge University Press. He has been a procurement consultant and a member of several Procurement Expert Groups. He has chaired the Italian Procurement Agency for Goods and Services, Consip Ltd., between 2002 and 2005. He is a columnist for several newspapers. See gustavopiga.eu for more details.

Learning Objectives

Prerequisites

Program

Books

Bibliography

Teaching methods

Exam Rules

Books

Bibliography

Updated A.Y. 2024-2025

Updated A.Y. 2023-2024

University of Rome Tor Vergata – Faculty of Economics

Academic Year 2023-2024

Master of Sciences in Business Administration

Economics of Procurement

CLASSROOM 

MODULE’s coordinator:

Prof. Gustavo Piga e-mail: gustavo.piga@uniroma2.it tel.: 06/7259-5701

CONTRIBUTORS TO THE MODULE:

Prof. Alessio D’Amato (6 hours)

Prof. Nicola Dimitri (10 hours)

Prof. Gustavo Piga (20 hours)

https://zoom.us/my/aulagg3workshop

The Program

Sourcing and procurement are becoming a key strategic function of modern economic organizations. These Lectures are meant to support the student with basic procurement tools.              

The topics:

1) Contracts for sourcing and competitive procurement;

2) Corruption and ethics in sourcing;

3) Centralizing procurement: the trade-offs;

4) Quality and procurement;

5) Award Procedures;

6) Contracting Strategies;

7) SMEs and Procurement;

8) Green and Sustainable Procurement,

9) Scoring rules in procurement;

10) Innovation and procurement.

The Material:

The teacher will refer the student, by the end of each week, to the library where she/he will find relevant material on the basis of the following textbooks:

• Handbook of Procurement, edited by Nicola Dimitri, Gustavo Piga and Giancarlo Spagnolo (to be purchased at discount) Cambridge University Press 2) Handouts.
• Jean Tirole and Stéphane Saussier http://www.cae-eco.fr/IMG/pdf/cae-note022-env2.pdf

Exam rules: Presence in class is essential and monitored with signatures. Students with 30 hours presence at least will only face an oral exam with Prof. Piga.

Students with less than 30 hours presence will also pass a written exam and, if passed, an oral exam.

Office Hours, room of  Prof. Piga (3^rd floor, Building B): via appointment via e-mail.

Lesson 1, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, November 6^th, 2023, 9-11 AM

Lesson 2, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, November 7^th, 2023, 9-11 AM

Lesson 3, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, November 8^th, 2023, 9-11 AM

Lesson 4, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, November 13^th, 2023, 9-11 AM

Lesson 5, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, November 14^th, 2023, 9-11 AM

Lesson 6, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, November 15^th, 2023, 9-11 AM

Lesson 12, Prof. Alessio D’Amato, Monday, November 27^th, 2023, 9-11 AM

Lesson 13, Prof. Alessio D’Amato, Tuesday, November 28^th, 2023, 9-11 AM

Lesson 14, Prof. Alessio D’Amato, Wednesday, November 29^th, 2023, 9-11 AM

Lesson 15, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, December 4^th, 2023, 9-11 AM

Lesson 16, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, December 5^th, 2023, 9-11 AM

Lesson 17, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, December 6^th, 2023, 9-11 AM

Lesson 18, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, December 11^th, 2023, 9-11 AM

Prof. Piga will cover the following topics:

Definitions and benchmarking of procurement practices.

Competition and Quality in Procurement: Substitutes or Complements?  Summing-up.

Ethics in procurement. Definition of corruption. Modalities of corruption in procurement. Corruption, competition and collusion.  Ethics in Procurement. The role of transparency. The role of checks and controls. E-procurement and corruption. The Challenge of e-proc and Centralization or the e-proc and Centralization challenges? Models of E-procurement.

Procurement and small firms.

Centralization of procurement in complex organizations. Benchmarking across public administrations. Possible systems of governance. Impact of centralization. The issue of competences.

Prof. Alessio D’Amato will cover the following topics in the sustainable (and specifically green) procurement literature and public debate, related to the development and implementation of Green Public Procurement (GPP) as an environmental policy tool:

- An introduction to the economics of sustainable development and environmental problems

- GPP: an introduction

- GPP in real life: implementation examples.

- Is GPP an efficient environmental policy tool?

            - Cost effectiveness

            - Environmental effectiveness

            - Incentives to eco-innovation

- How can GPP be improved?

- GPP design and economic performances

- GPP design and enforcement

Lessons 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 Prof. Nicola Dimitri, Monday, November 20^th 9-11 AM and 2 to 4 PM, Tuesday, November 21^st, 9-11 AM and 2 to 4 PM, Wednesday, November 22^nd 9-11.

Centralizing procurement: the trade-offs;

Award procedures.

-           Competitive Tendering

-           Negotiation

Procurement Contracting Strategies

-           Fixed Price Contracts

-           Cost plus fee contracts

-           Incentive contracts

Competitive Procurement Design:

-           Winner’s Curse, Buyer’s Curse

-           Information and the Choice of Auctions

Lots and (Un)Bundling

-           Number of Lots: (Un)Bundling, Participation and Competition

-           Package Bidding as Endogenous Lot Design

The choice of the awarding criteria: LP vs MEAT

• Weighting price and quality
• Introduction to scoring rules
• Application of scoring rules in procurement:
• Manipulability and collusion

A brief profile of the teachers:

Nicola Dimitri:

Nicola Dimitri is Professor of Economics at the University of Siena (Italy). He is Life Member of Clare Hall College (Cambridge-UK), Research Associate Center for Blockchain Technologies (UCL-UK) and member of the Blockchain Center University of Zurich (CH). He was formerly Deputy Rector of the University of Siena and Head of the Economics Department. He has been Chair of Innovation Procurement (Masstricht School of Management-NL) Fullbright Student, Chevening Scholar, NATO-CNR and Fernand Braudel Fellow (EUI). From 2003 until 2008 he collaborated as Economic consultant with the Research Office of Consip, the Italian Procurement Agency for the public sector. His research interests include game and decision theory, behavioral and cognitive economics, procurement, health and pharmaceutical economics, innovation and incentives. He is one of the editors and of the authors of the “Handbook of Procurement (Cambridge University Press, 2006)” as well as of other articles and reports on procurement.

Alessio D’Amato:

Alessio D’Amato is Associate Professor in Economic Policy, Department of Economics and Finance, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. His main fields of expertise are: drivers of environmental behaviours; environmental regulation; eco-innovation. He got his PhD in Economics at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, where he teaches Green Finance, Environmental Economics and Policy and Sustainable Development. He has been and is involved in national and international projects, and he is co-author of several working papers, book chapters and papers published on international peer reviewed journals (including Ecological Economics, Energy Economics, Environmental and Resource Economics, Energy Journal, Journal of Regulatory Economics and Resource and Energy Economics).

Gustavo Piga:

Gustavo Piga, Ph. D. in Economics at Columbia University, is Full Professor of Economics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, where he chairs the Master in Procurement Management. He is the co-editor of the Handbook of Procurement, edited by Cambridge University Press. He has been a procurement consultant and a member of several Procurement Expert Groups. He has chaired the Italian Procurement Agency for Goods and Services, Consip Ltd., between 2002 and 2005. He is also the co-editor of The European Journal of Public Procurement Markets and a columnist for several newspapers. See gustavopiga.eu for more details.

Learning Objectives

Prerequisites

Program

Books

Bibliography

Teaching methods

Exam Rules

Attendance Rules

Program

Exam Rules

Program

Bibliography

Exam Rules

Updated A.Y. 2021-2022

University of Rome Tor Vergata – Faculty of Economics

Academic Year 2020-2021

Master of Sciences in Business Administration

Economics of Procurement

CLASSROOM 

MODULE’s coordinator:

Prof. Gustavo Piga e-mail: gustavo.piga@uniroma2.it tel.: 06/7259-5701

CONTRIBUTORS TO THE MODULE:

Prof. Alessio D’Amato (6 hours)

Prof. Nicola Dimitri (10 hours)

Prof. Gustavo Piga (20 hours)

https://zoom.us/my/aulapme

The Program

Sourcing and procurement are becoming a key strategic function of modern economic organizations. These Lectures are meant to support the student with basic procurement tools.              

The topics:

1) Contracts for sourcing and competitive procurement;

2) Corruption and ethics in sourcing;

3) Centralizing procurement: the trade-offs;

4) Quality and procurement;

5) Award Procedures;

6) Contracting Strategies;

7) SMEs and Procurement;

8) Green and Sustainable Procurement,

9) Scoring rules in procurement;

10) Innovation and procurement.

The Material:

The teacher will refer the student, by the end of each week, to the library where she/he will find relevant material on the basis of the following textbooks:

• Handbook of Procurement, edited by Nicola Dimitri, Gustavo Piga and Giancarlo Spagnolo (to be purchased at discount) Cambridge University Press 2) Handouts.
• Jean Tirole and Stéphane Saussier http://www.cae-eco.fr/IMG/pdf/cae-note022-env2.pdf

Exam rules: Presence in class is essential and monitored with signatures. Students with 30 hours presence at least will only face an oral exam with Prof. Piga.

Students with less than 30 hours presence will also pass a written exam and, if passed, an oral exam.

Office Hours, room of  Prof. Piga (3^rd floor, Building B): via appointment via e-mail.

Lesson 1, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, September 13^th, 2021, 9-11 AM

Lesson 2, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, September 14^th, 2021, 9-11 AM

Lesson 3, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, September 15^th, 2021, 9-11 AM

Lesson 4, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, September 20^th, 2021, 9-11 AM

Lesson 5, Prof. Alessio D’Amato, Tuesday, September 21^st, 2021, 9-11 AM

Lesson 6, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, September 22^nd, 2021, 9-11 AM

Lesson 10, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, October 4^th, 2021, 9-11 AM

Lesson 13, Prof. Alessio D’Amato, Monday, October 11^th, 2021, 9-11 AM

Lesson 14, Prof. Alessio D’Amato, Tuesday, October 12^th, 2021, 9-11 AM

Lesson 15, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, October 13^th, 2021, 9-11 AM

Lesson 16, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, October 17^th, 2021, 9-11 AM

Lesson 17, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, October 18^th, 2021, 9-11 AM

Lesson 18, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, October 19^th, 2021, 9-11 AM

Prof. Piga will cover the following topics:

Definitions and benchmarking of procurement practices.

Competition and Quality in Procurement: Substitutes or Complements?  Summing-up.

Ethics in procurement. Definition of corruption. Modalities of corruption in procurement. Corruption, competition and collusion.  Ethics in Procurement. The role of transparency. The role of checks and controls. E-procurement and corruption. The Challenge of e-proc and Centralization or the e-proc and Centralization challenges? Models of E-procurement.

Procurement and small firms.

Centralization of procurement in complex organizations. Benchmarking across public administrations. Possible systems of governance. Impact of centralization. The issue of competences.

Prof. Alessio D’Amato will cover the following topics in the sustainable (and specifically green) procurement literature and public debate, related to the development and implementation of Green Public Procurement (GPP) as an environmental policy tool:

- An introduction to the economics of sustainable development and environmental problems

- GPP: an introduction

- GPP in real life: implementation examples.

- Is GPP an efficient environmental policy tool?

            - Cost effectiveness

            - Environmental effectiveness

            - Incentives to eco-innovation

- How can GPP be improved?

- GPP design and economic performances

- GPP design and enforcement

Lessons 7, 8, 9, 11 and 12 Prof. Nicola Dimitri, Monday, September 27^th, Tuesday, September 28^th, Wednesday, September 29^th, 9-11 AM, Tuesday October 5^th 9-11 (on line) and Wednesday, October 6^th,  9-11 (on line),

Centralizing procurement: the trade-offs;

Award procedures.

-           Competitive Tendering

-           Negotiation

Procurement Contracting Strategies

-           Fixed Price Contracts

-           Cost plus fee contracts

-           Incentive contracts

Competitive Procurement Design:

-           Winner’s Curse, Buyer’s Curse

-           Information and the Choice of Auctions

Lots and (Un)Bundling

-           Number of Lots: (Un)Bundling, Participation and Competition

-           Package Bidding as Endogenous Lot Design

The choice of the awarding criteria: LP vs MEAT

• Weighting price and quality
• Introduction to scoring rules
• Application of scoring rules in procurement:
• Manipulability and collusion

A brief profile of the teachers:

Nicola Dimitri:

Nicola Dimitri is Professor of Economics at the University of Siena (Italy) Research Fellow and Innovation Procurement Chair at Maastricht School of Management, Lecturer at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IMT) Lucca (Italy) and Life Member of Clare Hall College (Cambridge-UK). He was formerly Deputy Rector of the University of Siena and Head of the Economics Department. He has been Fullbright Student, Chevening Scholar, NATO-CNR and Fernand Braudel Fellow (EUI). From 2003 until 2008 he collaborated as Economic consultant with the Research Office of Consip, the Italian Procurement Agency for the public sector. His research interests include game and decision theory, behavioral and cognitive economics, procurement, health and pharmaceutical economics, innovation and incentives. He is one of the editors and of the authors of the “Handbook of Procurement (Cambridge University Press, 2006)” as well as of other articles and reports on procurement.

Alessio D’Amato:

Alessio D’Amato is Associate Professor in Economic Policy, Department of Economics and Finance, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. His main fields of expertise are: drivers of environmental behaviours; environmental regulation; eco-innovation. He got his PhD in Economics at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, where he teaches Green Finance and Public Economics. He has been and is involved in national and international projects, and he is co-author of several working papers, book chapters and papers published on international peer reviewed journals (including Ecological Economics, Energy Economics, Environmental and Resource Economics, Energy Journal, Journal of Regulatory Economics and Resource and Energy Economics).

Gustavo Piga:

Gustavo Piga, Ph. D. in Economics at Columbia University, is Full Professor of Economics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, where he chairs the Master in Procurement Management. He is the co-editor of the Handbook of Procurement, edited by Cambridge University Press. He has been a procurement consultant and a member of several Procurement Expert Groups. He has chaired the Italian Procurement Agency for Goods and Services, Consip Ltd., between 2002 and 2005. He is also the co-editor of The European Journal of Public Procurement Markets and a columnist for several newspapers. See gustavopiga.eu for more details.

Updated A.Y. 2020-2021

Online lectures at https://zoom.us/my/aulap1

University of Rome Tor Vergata – Faculty of Economics

Academic Year 2020-2021

Master of Sciences in Business Administration

Economics of Procurement

CLASSROOM 

MODULE’s coordinator:

Prof. Gustavo Piga e-mail: gustavo.piga@uniroma2.it tel.: 06/7259-5701

CONTRIBUTORS TO THE MODULE:

Prof. Alessio D’Amato (6 hours)

Dott. Adriano Di Domenicantonio (6 hours)

Prof. Nicola Dimitri (6 hours)

Prof. Gustavo Piga (18 hours)

The Program

Sourcing and procurement are becoming a key strategic function of modern economic organizations. These Lectures are meant to support the student with basic procurement tools.         

The topics:

1) Contracts for sourcing and competitive procurement;

2) Corruption and ethics in sourcing;

3) Centralizing procurement: the trade-offs;

4) Quality and procurement;

5) Award Procedures;

6) Contracting Strategies;

7) SMEs and Procurement;

8) Green and Sustainable Procurement,

9) Scoring rules in procurement;

10) Innovation and procurement.

The Material:

The teacher will refer the student, by the end of each week, to the library where she/he will find relevant material on the basis of the following textbooks:

• Handbook of Procurement, edited by Nicola Dimitri, Gustavo Piga and Giancarlo Spagnolo (to be purchased at discount) Cambridge University Press 2) Handouts.
• Jean Tirole and Stéphane Saussier http://www.cae-eco.fr/IMG/pdf/cae-note022-env2.pdf

Exam rules: Presence in class is essential and monitored with signatures. Students with 30 hours presence at least will only face an oral exam with Prof. Piga.

Students with less than 30 hours presence will also pass a written exam and, if passed, an oral exam.

Office Hours, room of  Prof. Piga (3^rd floor, Building B): via appointment via e-mail.

Lesson 1, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, September 14^th, 2020, 9-11 AM

Lesson 2, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, September 15^th, 2020, 9-11 AM

Lesson 3, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, September 16^th, 2020, 9-11 AM

Lesson 4, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, September 21^st, 2020, 9-11 AM

Lesson 5, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, September 22^nd, 2019, 9-11 AM

Lesson 6, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, September 23^rd, 2020, 9-11 AM

Lesson 10, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, October 5^th, 2020, 9-11 AM

Lesson 11, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, October 6^th, 2020, 9-11 AM

Lesson 12, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, October 7^th, 2020, 9-11 AM

Lesson 13, Prof. Alessio D’Amato; Monday, October 12^nd, 2020, 9-11 AM

Lesson 14, Prof. Alessio D’Amato; Tuesday, October 13^rd, 2020, 9-11 AM

Lesson 15, Prof. Alessio D’Amato, Wednesday, October 14^h, 2020, 9-11 AM

Prof. Piga will cover the following topics:

Definitions and benchmarking of procurement practices.

Competition and Quality in Procurement: Substitutes or Complements?  Summing-up.

Ethics in procurement. Definition of corruption. Modalities of corruption in procurement. Corruption, competition and collusion.  Ethics in Procurement. The role of transparency. The role of checks and controls. E-procurement and corruption. The Challenge of e-proc and Centralization or the e-proc and Centralization challenges? Models of E-procurement.

Procurement and small firms.

Centralization of procurement in complex organizations. Benchmarking across public administrations. Possible systems of governance. Impact of centralization. The issue of competences.

Prof. Alessio D’Amato will cover the following topics in the sustainable (and specifically green) procurement literature and public debate, related to the development and implementation of Green Public Procurement (GPP) as an environmental policy tool:

- An introduction to the economics of sustainable development and environmental problems

- GPP: an introduction

- GPP in real life: implementation examples.

- Is GPP an efficient environmental policy tool?

            - Cost effectiveness

            - Environmental effectiveness

            - Incentives to eco-innovation

- How can GPP be improved?

- GPP design and economic performances

- GPP design and enforcement

Lessons 7, 8 and 9, Prof. Nicola Dimitri, Monday, September 28^th, Tuesday, September 29^th, Wednesday, September 30^th, 9-11 AM  

Centralizing procurement: the trade-offs;

Award procedures.

-           Competitive Tendering

-           Negotiation

Procurement Contracting Strategies

-           Fixed Price Contracts

-           Cost plus fee contracts

-           Incentive contracts

Competitive Procurement Design:

-           Winner’s Curse, Buyer’s Curse

-           Information and the Choice of Auctions

Lots and (Un)Bundling

-           Number of Lots: (Un)Bundling, Participation and Competition

-           Package Bidding as Endogenous Lot Design

Lessons 17 and 18, Dr. Adriano Di Domenicantonio

Monday, October 19^th, 2020, 3-6 PM Tuesday October 20^th , 2020, 3-6 PM:

Simulating an awarding procedure from Drafting the tender notice to awarding the contract:

-           Procedure and contractual choice.

-           Participation and qualitative selection criteria

-           Service Level Agreements, Key Performance Indicators and penalties (deductions)

-           Contract award criteria and award procedure:

1. The choice of the the awarding criteria: LP vs MEAT
2. Weighting price and quality
3. Introduction to scoring rules
4. Application of scoring rules in procurement:
5. Manipulability and collusion

A brief profile of the teachers:

Nicola Dimitri:

Nicola Dimitri is Professor of Economics at the University of Siena (Italy) Research Fellow and Innovation Procurement Chair at Maastricht School of Management, Lecturer at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IMT) Lucca (Italy) and Life Member of Clare Hall College (Cambridge-UK). He was formerly Deputy Rector of the University of Siena and Head of the Economics Department. He has been Fullbright Student, Chevening Scholar, NATO-CNR and Fernand Braudel Fellow (EUI). From 2003 until 2008 he collaborated as Economic consultant with the Research Office of Consip, the Italian Procurement Agency for the public sector. His research interests include game and decision theory, behavioral and cognitive economics, procurement, health and pharmaceutical economics, innovation and incentives. He is one of the editors and of the authors of the “Handbook of Procurement (Cambridge University Press, 2006)” as well as of other articles and reports on procurement.

Adriano Di Domenicantonio:

Adriano Di Domenicantonio is a Buyer for a big public utility company in the transportation sector, dealing with technical purchasing. - and has been a procurement consultant at "Advanced Procurement" a consulting, professional training and research firm. As consultant he has worked in projects for the International Fund of Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Region of Lazio, several public utilities companies among which ACEA Ltd., ENI Ltd and Poste Italiane Ltd. He graduated in Economics and he holds a Master in "Procurement Management" from University of Rome “Tor Vergata”.  

Alessio D’Amato:

Alessio D’Amato is Associate Professor in Economic Policy, Department of Economics and Finance, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. His main fields of expertise are: drivers of environmental behaviours; environmental regulation; eco-innovation. He got his PhD in Economics at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, where he teaches Green Finance and Public Economics. He has been and is involved in national and international projects, and he is co-author of several working papers, book chapters and papers published on international peer reviewed journals (including Ecological Economics, Energy Economics, Environmental and Resource Economics, Energy Journal, Journal of Regulatory Economics and Resource and Energy Economics).

Gustavo Piga:

Gustavo Piga, Ph. D. in Economics at Columbia University, is Full Professor of Economics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, where he chairs the Master in Procurement Management. He is the co-editor of the Handbook of Procurement, edited by Cambridge University Press. He has been a procurement consultant and a member of several Procurement Expert Groups. He has chaired the Italian Procurement Agency for Goods and Services, Consip Ltd., between 2002 and 2005. He is also the co-editor of The European Journal of Public Procurement Markets and a columnist for several newspapers. See www.gustavopiga.it for more details.

Updated A.Y. 2019-2020

University of Rome Tor Vergata – Faculty of Economics
Academic Year 2019-2020
Master of Sciences in Business Administration

Economics of Procurement
CLASSROOM 

MODULE’s coordinator:
Prof. Gustavo Piga e-mail: gustavo.piga@uniroma2.it tel.: 06/7259-5701

CONTRIBUTORS TO THE MODULE:
Prof. Nicola Dimitri (6 hours)
Prof. Gustavo Piga (18-20 hours)
Dott. Adriano Di Domenicantonio (6 hours)
Alessio D’Amato (6 hours)

The Program

Sourcing and procurement are becoming a key strategic function of modern economic organizations. These Lectures are meant to support the student with basic procurement tools. 
The topics:

1) Contracts for sourcing and competitive procurement;
2) Corruption and ethics in sourcing;
3) Centralizing procurement: the trade-offs;
4) Sourcing in complex organizations;
5) Award Procedures;
6) Contracting Strategies;
7) SMEs and Procurement;
8) Auctions and scoring rules,
9) Scoring rules in procurement;
10) Innovation and procurement.

The Material:

The teacher will refer the student, by the end of each week, to the library where she/he will find relevant material on the basis of the following textbooks:

1) Handbook of Procurement, edited by Nicola Dimitri, Gustavo Piga and Giancarlo Spagnolo (to be purchased at discount) Cambridge University Press 2) Handouts.
2) Jean Tirole and Stéphane Saussier http://www.cae-eco.fr/IMG/pdf/cae-note022-env2.pdf

Exam rules: Presence in class is essential and monitored with signatures. Students with 30 hours presence at least will only face an oral exam with Prof. Piga.
Students with less than 30 hours presence will also pass a written exam and, if passed, an oral exam.

Office Hours, room of  Prof. Piga (3rd floor, Building B): via appointment via e-mail.

Lesson 1, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, November 4th, 2019, 9-11 AM
Lesson 2, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, November 5th, 2019, 9-11 AM
Lesson 3, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, November 6th, 2019, 9-11 AM
Lesson 4, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, November 11th, 2019, 9-11 AM
Lesson 8, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, November 18h, 2019, 9-11 AM
Lesson 9, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, November 19th, 2019, 9-11 AM
Lesson 10, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, November 20th, 2019, 9-11 AM
Lesson 11, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, November 25th, 2019, 9-11 AM
Lesson 12, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, November 26th, 2019, 9-11 AM
Lesson 13, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, November 27th, 2019, 9-11 AM (if needed)
Lesson 14, Prof. Alessio D’Amato; Monday, December 2nd, 2019, 9-11 AM
Lesson 15, Prof. Alessio D’Amato; Tuesday, December 3rd, 2019, 9-11 AM
Lesson 16, Prof. Alessio D’Amato, Wednesday, December 4h, 2019, 9-11 AM

Competition and Quality in Procurement: Substitutes or Complements?  Summing-up.
Ethics in procurement. Definition of corruption. Modalities of corruption in procurement. Corruption, competition and collusion.
Ethics in Procurement. The role of transparency. The role of checks and controls. E-procurement and corruption.
The Challenge of e-proc and Centralization or the e-proc and Centralization challenges? Models of E-procurement.
Procurement and small firms.
Centralization of procurement in complex organizations. Benchmarking across public administrations. Possible systems of governance. Impact of centralization. The issue of competences.

Prof. Alessio D’Amato will cover the following topics in the sustainable (and specifically green) procurement literature and public debate, related to the development and implementation of Green Public Procurement (GPP) as an environmental policy tool:

- An introduction to the economics of sustainable development and environmental problems
- GPP: an introduction
- GPP in real life: implementation examples.
- Is GPP an efficient environmental policy tool?
- Cost effectiveness
- Environmental effectiveness
- Incentives to eco-innovation
- How can GPP be improved?
- GPP design and economic performances
- GPP design and enforcement

Lessons 5, 6 and 7, Prof. Nicola Dimitri, Tuesday, November 12th, 9-11 AM and 12-2PM, Wednesday, November 13th, 9-11 AM 

Centralizing procurement: the trade-offs;
Award procedures.
- Competitive Tendering
- Negotiation
Procurement Contracting Strategies
- Fixed Price Contracts
- Cost plus fee contracts
- Incentive contracts
Competitive Procurement Design:
- Winner’s Curse, Buyer’s Curse
- Information and the Choice of Auctions
Lots and (Un)Bundling
- Number of Lots: (Un)Bundling, Participation and Competition
-  Package Bidding as Endogenous Lot Design

Lessons 17 and 18, Dr. Adriano Di Domenicantonio
Monday, December 9th,  3-6 PM Tuesday December 10th , 3-6 PM:

Simulating an awarding procedure from Drafting the tender notice to awarding the contract:
- Procedure and contractual choice.
- Participation and qualitative selection criteria
- Service Level Agreements, Key Performance Indicators and penalties (deductions)
- Contract award criteria and award procedure:
1. The choice of the the awarding criteria: LP vs MEAT
2. Weighting price and quality
3. Introduction to scoring rules
4. Application of scoring rules in procurement:
5. Manipulability and collusion

A brief profile of the teachers:

Nicola Dimitri:

Nicola Dimitri is Professor of Economics at the University of Siena (Italy) Research Fellow and Innovation Procurement Chair at Maastricht School of Management, Lecturer at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IMT) Lucca (Italy) and Life Member of Clare Hall College (Cambridge-UK). He was formerly Deputy Rector of the University of Siena and Head of the Economics Department. He has been Fullbright Student, Chevening Scholar, NATO-CNR and Fernand Braudel Fellow (EUI). From 2003 until 2008 he collaborated as Economic consultant with the Research Office of Consip, the Italian Procurement Agency for the public sector. His research interests include game and decision theory, behavioral and cognitive economics, procurement, health and pharmaceutical economics, innovation and incentives. He is one of the editors and of the authors of the “Handbook of Procurement (Cambridge University Press, 2006)” as well as of other articles and reports on procurement.

Adriano Di Domenicantonio:

Adriano Di Domenicantonio is a Buyer for a big public utility company in the transportation sector, dealing with technical purchasing. - and has been a procurement consultant at "Advanced Procurement" a consulting, professional training and research firm. As consultant he has worked in projects for the International Fund of Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Region of Lazio, several public utilities companies among which ACEA Ltd., ENI Ltd and Poste Italiane Ltd. He graduated in Economics and he holds a Master in "Procurement Management" from University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. 

Alessio D’Amato:

Alessio D’Amato is Associate Professor in Economic Policy, Department of Economics and Finance, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. His main fields of expertise are: drivers of environmental behaviours; environmental regulation; eco-innovation. He got his PhD in Economics at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, where he teaches Green Finance and Public Economics. He has been and is involved in national and international projects, and he is co-author of several working papers, book chapters and papers published on international peer reviewed journals (including Ecological Economics, Energy Economics, Environmental and Resource Economics, Energy Journal, Journal of Regulatory Economics and Resource and Energy Economics).

Gustavo Piga:

Gustavo Piga, Ph. D. in Economics at Columbia University, is Full Professor of Economics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, where he chairs the Master in Procurement Management. He is the co-editor of the Handbook of Procurement, edited by Cambridge University Press. He has been a procurement consultant and a member of several Procurement Expert Groups. He has chaired the Italian Procurement Agency for Goods and Services, Consip Ltd., between 2002 and 2005. He is also the co-editor of The European Journal of Public Procurement Markets and a columnist for several newspapers. See www.gustavopiga.it for more details.
 

Updated A.Y. 2018-2019

University of Rome Tor Vergata – Faculty of Economics
Academic Year 2017-2018
Master of Sciences in Business Administration

Economics of Procurement
CLASSROOM 

MODULE’s coordinator:
Prof. Gustavo Piga e-mail: gustavo.piga@uniroma2.it tel.: 06/7259-5701

CONTRIBUTORS TO THE MODULE:
Prof. Nicola Dimitri (6 hours)
Prof. Gustavo Piga (18 hours)
Dott. Adriano Di Domenicantonio (6 hours)
Francesco Decarolis (6 hours)

The Program

Sourcing and procurement are becoming a key strategic function of modern economic organizations. These Lectures are meant to support the student with basic procurement tools. 
The topics:

1) Contracts for sourcing and competitive procurement;
2) Corruption and ethics in sourcing;
3) Centralizing procurement: the trade-offs;
4) Sourcing in complex organizations;
5) Award Procedures;
6) Contracting Strategies;
7) SMEs and Procurement;
8) Auctions and scoring rules,
9) Scoring rules in procurement;
10) Innovation and procurement.

The Material:

The teacher will refer the student, by the end of each week, to the library where she/he will find relevant material on the basis of the following textbooks:

1) Handbook of Procurement, edited by Nicola Dimitri, Gustavo Piga and Giancarlo Spagnolo (to be purchased at discount) Cambridge University Press 2) Handouts.
2) Jean Tirole and Stéphane Saussier http://www.cae-eco.fr/IMG/pdf/cae-note022-env2.pdf

Exam rules: Presence in class is essential and monitored with signatures. Students with 30 hours presence at least will only face an oral exam with Prof. Piga.
Students with less than 30 hours presence will also pass a written exam and, if passed, an oral exam.

Office Hours, room of  Prof. Piga (3rd floor, Building B): via appointment via e-mail.

Lesson 1, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, November 5th, 2018, 9-11 AM
Lesson 5, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, November 12th, 2018, 9-11 AM
Lesson 6, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, November 13th, 2018, 9-11 AM
Lesson 7, Prof. Francesco Decarolis, Wednesday, November 14th, 2018, 9-11 AM
Lesson 8, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, November 19h, 2018, 9-11 AM
Lesson 9, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, November 20th, 2018, 9-11 AM
Lesson 10, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, November 21st, 2018, 9-11 AM
Lesson 11, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, November 26th, 2018, 9-11 AM
Lesson 12, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, November 27th, 2018, 9-1 AM
Lesson 13, Prof. Francesco Decarolis, Wednesday, November 28th, 2018, 9-11 AM
Lesson 14, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, December 3rd, 2018, 9-11 AM
Lesson 15, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, December 4th, 2018, 9-11 AM
Lesson 16, Prof. Francesco Decarolis, Wednesday, December 5th, 2018, 9-11 AM

Competition and Quality in Procurement: Substitutes or Complements?  Summing-up.
Ethics in procurement. Definition of corruption. Modalities of corruption in procurement. Corruption, competition and collusion.
Ethics in Procurement. The role of transparency. The role of checks and controls. E-procurement and corruption.
The Challenge of e-proc and Centralization or the e-proc and Centralization challenges? Models of E-procurement.
Procurement and small firms.
Centralization of procurement in complex organizations. Benchmarking across public administrations. Possible systems of governance. Impact of centralization. The issue of competences.

Prof. Francesco Decarolis will cover three hot topics in the procurement literature and public debate:
-          Set aside and Preference Programs: bid preferences and restriction of competition in procurement tenders allow firms from an identifiable group an advantage against unfavored firms. The goal of public authorities is to provide contract opportunities for small businesses or firms operated by members of groups designated as disadvantaged. While economic efficiency is expected to fall as a result of reduced competition, long-term government procurement costs may either increase or decrease depending on the response of favored and unfavored firms. We will review the most relevant contributions of economic literature to this topic. 
-          The role of Buyers’ Competence: Specialized skills are needed to undertake the procurement activity. Procurers must appropriately handle a multiplicity of complex tasks, including choosing the tender format, the award criteria, the tender specifications, and the contract design, even for rather simple acquisitions. I will present recent contributions to the economic and policy debate on the importance of improving the quality of a purchasing unit and paying more attention to the demand side of the procurement market.
-          Public procurement of Innovation: economists consider market demand as one of the major drivers of technological change and innovation. Recently, scholars and policy makers started to suggest that public procurement, may have a specific and important role in this process. We will discuss recent analyses of innovative public procurement as a technology policy and investigate the impact of procurement on firms' innovative behavior.
Lessons 2, 3 and 4, Prof. Nicola Dimitri, Tuesday, November 6th, 9-11 AM and 12-2PM, Wednesday, November 7th, 9-11 AM 

Centralizing procurement: the trade-offs;
Award procedures.
- Competitive Tendering
- Negotiation
Procurement Contracting Strategies
- Fixed Price Contracts
- Cost plus fee contracts
- Incentive contracts
Competitive Procurement Design:
- Winner’s Curse, Buyer’s Curse
- Information and the Choice of Auctions
Lots and (Un)Bundling
- Number of Lots: (Un)Bundling, Participation and Competition
-  Package Bidding as Endogenous Lot Design

Lessons 17 and 18, Dr. Adriano Di Domenicantonio
Monday, December 10th,  3-6 PM Tuesday December 11th , 3-6 PM:

Simulating an awarding procedure from Drafting the tender notice to awarding the contract:
- Procedure and contractual choice.
- Participation and qualitative selection criteria
- Service Level Agreements, Key Performance Indicators and penalties (deductions)
- Contract award criteria and award procedure:
1. The choice of the the awarding criteria: LP vs MEAT
2. Weighting price and quality
3. Introduction to scoring rules
4. Application of scoring rules in procurement:
5. Manipulability and collusion

A brief profile of the teachers:

Nicola Dimitri:

Nicola Dimitri is Professor of Economics at the University of Siena (Italy) Research Fellow and Innovation Procurement Chair at Maastricht School of Management, Lecturer at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IMT) Lucca (Italy) and Life Member of Clare Hall College (Cambridge-UK). He was formerly Deputy Rector of the University of Siena and Head of the Economics Department. He has been Fullbright Student, Chevening Scholar, NATO-CNR and Fernand Braudel Fellow (EUI). From 2003 until 2008 he collaborated as Economic consultant with the Research Office of Consip, the Italian Procurement Agency for the public sector. His research interests include game and decision theory, behavioral and cognitive economics, procurement, health and pharmaceutical economics, innovation and incentives. He is one of the editors and of the authors of the “Handbook of Procurement (Cambridge University Press, 2006)” as well as of other articles and reports on procurement.

Adriano Di Domenicantonio:

Adriano Di Domenicantonio is a Buyer for a big public utility company in the transportation sector, dealing with technical purchasing. - and has been a procurement consultant at "Advanced Procurement" a consulting, professional training and research firm. As consultant he has worked in projects for the International Fund of Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Region of Lazio, several public utilities companies among which ACEA Ltd., ENI Ltd and Poste Italiane Ltd. He graduated in Economics and he holds a Master in "Procurement Management" from University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. 

Francesco Decarolis:

Associate Professor, Università Bocconi - Department of Economics since 2017. Previously he held various permanent and visiting positions at EIEF-Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance; Boston University; Stanford University; University of Pennsylvania; University of Wisconsin Madison; Columbia University and University of Chicago. Member of the European Commission - DG Comp, Economic Advisory Group on Competition Policy (EAGCP). Coordinator of the Economics Faculty at the Italian National School of Administration. Research areas: Industrial Organization, Applied Microeconomics, Market Design, Health Economics. Education: BA in Economics cum laude from Università Bocconi in 2002 and PhD in Economics from University of Chicago in 2009.

Gustavo Piga:

Gustavo Piga, Ph. D. in Economics at Columbia University, is Full Professor of Economics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, where he chairs the Master in Procurement Management. He is the co-editor of the Handbook of Procurement, edited by Cambridge University Press. He has been a procurement consultant and a member of several Procurement Expert Groups. He has chaired the Italian Procurement Agency for Goods and Services, Consip Ltd., between 2002 and 2005. He is also the co-editor of The European Journal of  Public Procurement Markets and a columnist for several newspapers. See www.gustavopiga.it for more details.

Updated A.Y. 2017-2018

MODULE’s coordinator:
Prof. Gustavo Piga e-mail: gustavo.piga@uniroma2.it tel.: 06/7259-5701

CONTRIBUTORS TO THE MODULE:
Prof. Nicola Dimitri (6 hours)
Prof. Gustavo Piga (18 hours)
Dott. Adriano Di Domenicantonio (6 hours)
Leonardo M. Giuffrida (6 hours)

The Program

Sourcing and procurement are becoming a key strategic function of modern economic organizations. These Lectures are meant to support the student with basic procurement tools. 
The topics:

1) Contracts for sourcing and competitive procurement;
2) Corruption and ethics in sourcing;
3) Centralizing procurement: the trade-offs;
4) Sourcing in complex organizations;
5) Award Procedures;
6) Contracting Strategies;
7)  SMEs and procurement;
8) Auctions and scoring rules;
9) Scoring rules in procurement;
10)  Innovation and procurement.

The Material:

The teacher will refer the student, by the end of each week, to the library where she/he will find relevant material on the basis of the following textbooks:

1) Handbook of Procurement, edited by Nicola Dimitri, Gustavo Piga and Giancarlo Spagnolo (to be purchased at discount) Cambridge University Press 2) Handouts.

Exam rules: Presence in class is essential and monitored with signatures. Students with 24 hours presence at least will only face an oral exam with Prof. Piga.
Students with less than 30 hours presence will also pass a written exam and, if passed, an oral exam.

Office Hours, room of  Prof. Piga (3rd floor, Building B): via appointment via e-mail.

*

Lesson 1, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, November 6th, 2017, 3-5 PM
Lesson 2, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, November 7th, 2017, 3-5 PM
Lesson 3, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, November 8th, 2017, 3-5 PM
Lesson 6, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, November 13th, 2017, 3-5 PM
Lesson 7, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, November 14th, 2017, 3-5 PM
Lesson 8, Dr. Leonardo M. Giuffrida, Wednesday, November 15th, 2017, 3-5 PM
Lesson 9, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, November 20th, 2017, 3-5 PM
Lesson 10, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, November 21st, 2017, 3-5 PM
Lesson 11, Dr. Leonardo M. Giuffrida, Wednesday, November 22nd, 2017, 3-5 PM
Lesson 12, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, November 27th, 2017, 3-5 PM
Lesson 13, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, November 28th, 2017, 3-5 PM
Lesson 14, Dr. Leonardo M. Giuffrida, Wednesday, November 29th, 2017, 3-5 PM

Prof. Piga's topics

Procurement: stylized facts

Competition and Quality in Procurement: Substitutes or Complements?  Summing-up.

Ethics in procurement. Definition of corruption. Modalities of corruption in procurement. Corruption, competition and collusion.
Ethics in Procurement. The role of transparency. The role of checks and controls. E-procurement and corruption.
The Challenge of e-proc and Centralization or the e-proc and Centralization challenges? Models of E-procurement.
Procurement and small firms.
Centralization of procurement in complex organizations. Benchmarking across public administrations. Possible systems of governance. Impact of centralization. The issue of competences.

Dr. Leonardo M. Giuffrida will cover three hot topics in the procurement literature and public debate:
-          Set aside and Preference Programs: bid preferences and restriction of competition in procurement tenders allow firms from an identifiable group an advantage against unfavored firms. The goal of public authorities is to provide contract opportunities for small businesses or firms operated by members of groups designated as disadvantaged. While economic efficiency is expected to fall as a result of reduced competition, long-term government procurement costs may either increase or decrease depending on the response of favored and unfavored firms. We will review the most relevant contributions of economic literature to this topic. 
-          The role of Buyers’ Competence: Specialized skills are needed to undertake the procurement activity. Procurers must appropriately handle a multiplicity of complex tasks, including choosing the tender format, the award criteria, the tender specifications, and the contract design, even for rather simple acquisitions. I will present recent contributions to the economic and policy debate on the importance of improving the quality of a purchasing unit and paying more attention to the demand side of the procurement market.
-          Public procurement of Innovation: economists consider market demand as one of the major drivers of technological change and innovation. Recently, scholars and policy makers started to suggest that public procurement, may have a specific and important role in this process. We will discuss recent analyses of innovative public procurement as a technology policy and investigate the impact of procurement on firms' innovative behavior.

Lessons 4 and 5, Prof. Nicola Dimitri, Thursday, November 9th, 2017, 9AM-12 PM and Friday, November 10th, 2017, 9AM-12 PM

Centralizing procurement: the trade-offs;
Award procedures.
- Competitive Tendering
- Negotiation
Procurement Contracting Strategies
- Fixed Price Contracts
- Cost plus fee contracts
- Incentive contracts
Competitive Procurement Design:
- Winner’s Curse, Buyer’s Curse
- Information and the Choice of Auctions
Lots and (Un)Bundling
- Number of Lots: (Un)Bundling, Participation and Competition
-  Package Bidding as Endogenous Lot Design

Lessons 15 and 16, Dr. Adriano Di Domenicantonio
Monday, December 4th,  3-6 PM Tuesday December 5th , 3-6 PM:

Simulating an awarding procedure from Drafting the tender notice to awarding the contract:
- Procedure and contractual choice.
- Participation and qualitative selection criteria
- Service Level Agreements, Key Performance Indicators and penalties (deductions)
- Contract award criteria and award procedure:
1. The choice of the the awarding criteria: LP vs MEAT
2. Weighting price and quality
3. Introduction to scoring rules
4. Application of scoring rules in procurement:
5. Manipulability and collusion

* 

A brief profile of the teachers:

Nicola Dimitri:

Nicola Dimitri is Professor of Economics at the University of Siena (Italy) Research Fellow and Innovation Procurement Chair at Maastricht School of Management, Lecturer at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IMT) Lucca (Italy) and Life Member of Clare Hall College (Cambridge-UK). He was formerly Deputy Rector of the University of Siena and Head of the Economics Department. He has been Fullbright Student, Chevening Scholar, NATO-CNR and Fernand Braudel Fellow (EUI). From 2003 until 2008 he collaborated as Economic consultant with the Research Office of Consip, the Italian Procurement Agency for the public sector. His research interests include game and decision theory, behavioral and cognitive economics, procurement, health and pharmaceutical economics, innovation and incentives. He is one of the editors and of the authors of the “Handbook of Procurement (Cambridge University Press, 2006)” as well as of other articles and reports on procurement.

Adriano Di Domenicantonio:

Adriano Di Domenicantonio is a Buyer for a big public utility company in the transportation sector, dealing with technical purchasing. - and has been a procurement consultant at "Advanced Procurement" a consulting, professional training and research firm. As consultant he has worked in projects for the International Fund of Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Region of Lazio, several public utilities companies among which ACEA Ltd., ENI Ltd and Poste Italiane Ltd. He graduated in Economics and he holds a Master in "Procurement Management" from University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. 

Leonardo M. Giuffrida:

Leonardo M. Giuffrida is Ph.D. in Economics at Tor Vergata University with a doctoral dissertation on "Advances in the Economics of Public Procurement". He is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at Tor Vergata University. His research activity involves the empirical investigation of Government Procurement as a tool to promote public policies in a wide range of fields and reach desired outcomes in society.

Gustavo Piga:

Gustavo Piga, Ph. D. in Economics at Columbia University, is Full Professor of Economics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, where he chairs the Master in Procurement Management. He is the co-editor of the Handbook of Procurement, edited by Cambridge University Press. He has been a procurement consultant and a member of several Procurement Expert Groups. He has chaired the Italian Procurement Agency for Goods and Services, Consip Ltd., between 2002 and 2005. He is also the co-editor of The European Journal of  Public Procurement Markets and a columnist for several newspapers. See www.gustavopiga.it for more details.

Updated A.Y. 2015-2016

CONTRIBUTORS TO THE MODULE:

Prof. Nicola Dimitri (6 hours) Prof. Gustavo Piga (18 hours) Avv. Daniele Ricciardi and Dott. Adriano Di Domenicantonio (6 hours)

The Program Sourcing and procurement are becoming a key strategic function of modern economic organizations. These Lectures are meant to support the student with basic procurement tools.

The topics: 1) Contracts for sourcing and competitive procurement; 2) Corruption and ethics in sourcing; 3) Centralizing procurement: the trade-offs; 4) Sourcing in complex organizations; 5) Award Procedures 6) Contracting Strategies 7) Public and private partnerships for the provision of public services: a case study; 8) Auctions and scoring rules. 9) Scoring rules in procurement. 10) Case study: drafting and awarding a European tender.

The Material: The teacher will refer the student, by the end of each week, to the library where she/he will find relevant material on the basis of the following textbooks: 1) Handbook of Procurement, edited by Nicola Dimitri, Gustavo Piga and Giancarlo Spagnolo (to be purchased at discount) 2) Handouts.

Exam rules: Presence in class is essential and monitored with signatures. Students with 24 hours presence at least will only face an oral exam with Prof. Piga. Students with less than 24 hours presence will also pass a written exam and, if passed, an oral exam.

Office Hours, room of Prof. Piga (3rd floor, Building B): via appointment via e-mail.

Lesson 1, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, April 11th, 2016, 2-4 PM

Lesson 2, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, April 12th, 2016, 2-4 PM

Lesson 3, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Monday, April 18th, 2016, 2-4 PM

Lesson 4, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, April 19th, 2016, 2-4 PM

Lesson 5, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, April 20th, 2016, 2-4 PM

Lesson 6, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Tuesday, April 26th, 2016, 2-4 PM

Lesson 7, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, April 27th, 2016, 2-4 PM

Lesson 10, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Wednesday, May 4th, 2016, 2-4 PM

Lesson 11, Prof. Gustavo Piga, Thursday, May 5th, 2016, 2-4 PM

Competition and Quality in Procurement: Substitutes or Complements? Summing-up. Ethics in procurement. Definition of corruption. Modalities of corruption in procurement. Corruption, competition and collusion. Ethics in Procurement. The role of transparency. The role of checks and controls. E-procurement and corruption. The Challenge of e-proc and Centralization or the e-proc and Centralization challenges? Models of E-procurement. Procurement and small firms. Centralization of procurement in complex organizations. Benchmarking across public administrations. Possible systems of governance. Impact of centralization. The issue of competences.

Lessons 8 and 9, Prof. Nicola Dimitri, Monday, May 2nd, 2016, 2-5 PM and Tuesday May 3rd, 2016, 2-5 PM

Award procedures. - Competitive Tendering - Negotiation Procurement Contracting Strategies - Fixed Price Contracts - Cost plus fee contracts - Incentive contracts Competitive Procurement Design: - Winner’s Curse, Buyer’s Curse - Information and the Choice of Auctions Lots and (Un)Bundling - Number of Lots: (Un)Bundling, Participation and Competition - Package Bidding as Endogenous Lot Design Evaluation and awarding criteria in procurement: - The choice of the the awarding criteria: LP vs MEAT - Weighting price and quality - Introduction to scoring rules Application of scoring rules in procurement: - Manipulability and collusion

Lessons 12 and 13, Dr. Adriano Di Domenicantonio and Avv. Daniele Ricciardi Monday, May 9th, Tuesday May 10th , 2-5 PM:

Interdisciplinary skills required to prepare tender documents: the lawyer and the buyer, roles / interactions in private and public procurement. Principles governing European public procurement directives. From Drafting the tender notice to awarding the contract: - Procedure and contractual choice. - Participation and qualitative selection criteria - Service Level Agreements, Key Performance Indicators and penalties (deductions) - Contract award criteria and award procedure. Simulating an awarding procedure using the most advantageous economic tender criterion

A brief profile of the teachers:

Nicola Dimitri: Nicola Dimitri is Professor of Economics at the University of Siena (Italy) Research Fellow and Honoray Professor at Maastricht School of Management, Lecturer at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IMT) Lucca (Italy) and Life Member of Clare Hall College (Cambridge-UK). He was formerly Deputy Rector of the University of Siena and Chair of the Economics Department. He has been Fullbright Student, Chevening Scholar, NATO-CNR and Fernand Braudel Fellow (EUI). From 2003 until 2008 he collaborated as Economic consultant with the Research Office of Consip, the Italian Procurement Agency for the public sector. His research interests include game and decision theory, behavioral and cognitive economics, procurement, health and pharmaceutical economics, innovation and incentives. He is one of the editors and of the authors of the “Handbook of Procurement (Cambridge University Press, 2006)” as well as of other articles and reports on procurement.

Adriano Di Domenicantonio: Adriano Di Domenicantonio is a Buyer for a big public utility company in the transportation sector, dealing with technical purchasing. - and has been a procurement consultant at "Advanced Procurement" a consulting, professional training and research firm. As consultant he has worked in projects for the International Fund of Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Region of Lazio, several public utilities companies among which ACEA Ltd., ENI Ltd and Poste Italiane Ltd. He graduated in Economics and he holds a Master in "Procurement Management" from University of Rome “Tor Vergata”.

Gustavo Piga: Gustavo Piga, Ph. D. in Economics at Columbia University, is Full Professor of Economics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, where he chairs the Master in Procurement Management. He is the co-editor of the Handbook of Procurement, edited by Cambridge University Press. He has been a procurement consultant and a member of several Procurement Expert Groups. He has chaired the Italian Procurement Agency for Goods and Services, Consip Ltd., between 2002 and 2005 and is the Coordinator of the Project “Us, against Corruption” a joint Tor Vergata-ANAC project (http:// www.anticorruzione.eu). He is also the editor of the Rivista di Politica Economica, the scientific journal of Confindustria and a columnist for several newspapers. See www.gustavopiga.it for more details.

Daniele Ricciardi: Daniele Ricciardi is attorney and consultant in the field of public contracts. After an intensive experience at the Legal Dept. of the Italian Procurement Agency for Goods and Services (Consip Ltd.), he moved to the private sector as trainer and consultant for central and local contracting authorities. As international legal expert he was involved in projects funded by EU Commission and World Bank for supporting the public procurement systems of Republic of Albania (2006) and Bangladesh (2008). He is Adjunct Professor at the LUMSA University of Rome and lecturer on innovation in public administration and electronic procurement at the University of Macerata and at the University of Rome Tor Vergata.