Can the Use of Recommended Procurement Practices Save Money?

Procurement is an essential business function of government. Despite the importance of effective procurement practices to government efficiency, very little is known about what local governments do in practice, and how procurement practices affect government spending. This paper reports the results of a survey on procurement practices used by New York State school districts. To examine the potential costs savings from adoption of particular procurement practices, the authors estimate cost models for materials, supplies, and equipment spending. Results from the cost model indicate that the use of competitive bidding, purchasing calendars, central warehouses, and bidders lists are associated with significant cost savings.     

INDIVIDUAL DECISIONAL CONSISTENCY ACROSS COLLEGIAL COURTS

This article examines the decisional consistency of U.S. Supreme Court justices with lower collegial court experience in a twofold effort to expose the potential policy implications of consistent or inconsistent behavior and to show the value of longitudinal analysis of individual rather than aggregate decisional patterns. The results show a fairly high level of consistent behavior but with marked differences across the case subjects. The article concludes with an assessment of the implications for justice selection processes and Supreme Court decision-making theory.