The Role of Social Value in Contracting

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Nickolay Gantchev (Warwick Business School)

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IWH, conference room and via Zoom

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Nickolay Gantchev is a Professor of Finance at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), and a Research Member at the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI). He holds a PhD in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA/MS in Finance from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. Before joining Warwick in 2020, Dr. Gantchev held faculty positions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Southern Methodist University.

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Using over 1.39 million public procurement contracts valued at over $311 billion, we provide the first comprehensive evidence on how contractors’ environmental and social (E&S) performance shapes procurement contracting. E&S incidents lead to 12-13% smaller contract amounts and 11-13% shorter contract durations, with stronger effects in less competitive markets and for differentiated products. Additionally, poor E&S performers face 24% lower likelihood of contract renegotiation and less favorable renegotiation terms. Exploiting a landmark legal ruling on procurement discretion over non-price terms, we establish that agencies with greater monitoring capacity impose stronger discipline on poor E&S performers. These contractual consequences translate to significant declines in contractors’ sales and employment, revealing procurement as an important mechanism for enforcing corporate E&S responsibility.