Peer-Reviewed Research Sample Clauses

Peer-Reviewed Research. The political tug-of-war over public-sector PLAs in the United States occurs for many reasons, howev- er public discourse often focuses on their potential influence on bid competition and construction costs borne by taxpayers. Attention to these concerns has led to a torrent of politically driven articles seek- ing to influence public opinion, often citing incom- plete or low-quality economic research. However, the study of public-sector PLAs has also been the topic of study by academic scholars publishing in peer-reviewed journals; while this literature is lim- ited to a few studies, its results are informative given that they represent the most complete and well-de- veloped economic analyses of public-sector PLAs (▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ and ▇▇▇▇▇▇, 2022). The question of whether project labour agreements affect bid competition on public projects has been directly addressed in only a single peer-reviewed study. Philips and ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ (2021) analyzed bids on 263 construction projects among California com- munity colleges between 2007 and 2016. After ac- counting for differences between projects—such as size and location—the authors concluded that the presence of a PLA did not have a statistically significant effect on the number of bidders on the project. ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ and ▇▇▇▇▇▇ (2022) surmise that this finding may mean that while PLAs deter some contractors from bidding, it may encourage others. Nevertheless, while the research on this question is in its infancy—and future research may reach con- tradictory conclusions—the findings of ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ and ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ (2021) are consistent with a consensus of other peer-reviewed studies showing that labour regulations do not necessarily have a statistically significant effect on the number of bidders on public projects in the United States.112,113 Concerns about bid competition are implicitly tied to the leading policy concern when it comes to pub- lic-sector PLAs in the United States: whether they raise construction costs and, thus, increase the bur- den on taxpayers. To that question, however, the three most recent and methodologically advanced studies in peer-reviewed journals tell a consistent story: project labour agreements do not have a sta- tistically significant effect on public construction costs. In the most extensive study of the subject to date, ▇▇▇▇▇▇ et al. (2010) concluded that PLAs did not have a statistically significant impact on school construction costs in Massachusetts after accounting for differences in project siz...