e-Procurement Food UA

The Ukrainian public food procurement system, Prozorro, established in 2015, plays a crucial role in promoting competition among food suppliers and ensuring the quality of food provided to government agencies, schools, hospitals, and other public organizations. Despite the implementation of the Prozorro electronic procurement platform, concerns persist about the effectiveness of competition in certain submarkets, potential market power among suppliers, and its impact on transparency and market efficiency. Identifying the extent of competition, collusive market behavior, and price discrimination practices is essential for safeguarding public funds and fostering sustainable economic development.

Yaroslav Kapustianskyi's e-Procurement Food UA dissertation project therefore aims to analyze competition in Ukraine's electronic procurement market for food, identify issues related to market concentration, and suggest ways to enhance competition and transparency, contributing to sustainable economic development.

Research questions

• What factors drive competition in Ukraine’s food procurement market, and where do they originate?
• To what extent does competition exist in Ukraine’s food procurement market, and what level of oligopolistic power do suppliers hold?
• Which policy measures could improve market transparency and foster greater competition in Ukraine’s food procurement sector?

Research design and methods

The empirical analysis is based on concepts from Industrial Organization, particularly the New Empirical Industrial Organization (NEIO) framework. It considers key characteristics of market structure, such as market concentration, market share, and the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI). The research combines daily data provided by the Ukrainian Electronic Procurement System, Prozorro, with official statistics published by the State Statistics Service of Ukraine. Using both theoretical and empirical NEIO approaches, the project will develop empirical models to measure the degree of competition and market power exerted by food suppliers, identifying both oligopolistic and competitive market structures.

• German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)