Clients engage consultant quantity surveyors or cost engineers to perform project cost estimates before calling for tender submissions. This experimental study examines the impact of releasing the clients’ pre-tender cost estimates prior to bidding on student subjects’ bidding behavioural patterns, and the extents to which their bidding tends to agree with the behavioural patterns proposed by Milgrom and Weber’s theory. The results show that the provision of clients’ pre-tender cost estimates prior to bidding does affect bidders’ bidding behaviour. Bidders with access to the clients’ pre-tender cost estimates prior to bidding, on average, recorded lower bids than those with no access to the estimate. However, the lower average bids do not result in statistically significant lower winning bids. These findings provide evidence in support of Milgrom and Weber’s theory, demonstrating the practicality of an experimental approach using student subjects for testing theories in building economics research. The practical implication is that construction clients would need to consider their information policy on releasing pre-tender cost estimates to enhance efficiency in their procurement for construction services.

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发布施工客户的招标价格估算：一项实验研究

在要求投标之前，客户请顾问数量测量师或成本工程师进行项目成本估算。这项实验研究考察了在投标之前发布客户的投标前成本估计对学生主体的投标行为模式的影响，以及他们的投标在何种程度上倾向于与米尔格罗姆和韦伯的理论所提出的行为模式相一致。结果表明，在投标之前提供客户的投标前成本估算确实会影响投标人的投标行为。平均而言，有权获得客户投标前投标价格估计的投标人的投标报价均低于无法获得估计价格的投标人。但是，较低的平均出价不会导致统计上显着的较低的中标价格。这些发现为米尔格罗姆和韦伯的理论提供了支持，证明了使用学生科目测试建筑经济学研究理论的实验方法的实用性。实际的含义是建筑客户需要考虑发布预投标成本估算的信息政策，以提高建筑服务的采购效率。