Implications for Policy
Government is a participant in many marketplaces. Thus it has multiple roles to fulfil in both marketplace design and operation. It is also a party with significant power, in that it has the legislative ability to influence marketplace design, rule setting and operational conditions. Exertion of these powers necessarily brings with it the responsibility of understanding the consequences for the marketplace of such actions. As marketplaces are often very complex, this responsibility is not necessarily easily managed at the political level of government. Appropriate interventions or lack of them are not always easily explained to voters. This is even harder to do when participatory roles conflict with regulatory ones. Thus the standard of understanding of markets where Government participates, and the level of disclosure of the rationale for action, is possibly greater for Government than for any other participant.
More directly, the role of Government as owner of e-procurement applications needs to be assessed against the sorts of tests of marketplace design raised here, and by authors such as McMillan. Making it an "e" model is no guarantee of success if the underlying rationale for having a marketplace at all has not been soundly assessed.
There is nothing special about "e" marketplaces that render them immune to the forces that have always shaped the design of marketplaces, or the benefits of analysis based upon the fundamental economics of the trading markets that they serve.
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