Public Procurement as Secondary Policy: Axioms and Perspectives

The role of public procurement as a means to implement secondary policy has been increasingly emphasised in the last few decades. Besides being the primary sourcing instrument for public agencies, public procurement could be used to stimulate all kinds of new behaviour, including innovation, sustainability and energy efficiency. The evolution and diffusion of these principles and practices have been preceded by debates and discussions where certain axioms have played an important role to sh...