Do social clauses in contracts favor third-sector social entities? The evolution of local public procurement in the field of services to people in Barcelona

Abstract

This article presents the evolution of local public procurement in the services to people in Barcelona, ​​based on the changes introduced in the legislation and codes of good practices that seek positive actions towards socially responsible procurement. In this context, the article examines the evolution of the legal nature of the bidders and the successful bidders, differentiating between capitalist enterprises and third-sector social entities, to determine possible linkage between the changes in the public procurmenent and the type of bidder and successful bidder. For this purpose all contracts in the field of services to people carried out from 2017 to 2019 by the Barcelona city council are analysed and we compare them with seven other municipalities of Catalonia. Despite the fact the results do not find a positive relationship between the introduction of social clauses and the increase in third sector entities among bidders or successful bidders, the third sector entities are more succesful when they compite against capitalist enterpreises in Barcelona. Moreover, the analysis identified some factors that could improve the chances of these non-profit entities to be a successful bidder.