Procuring price and quality using scoring auctions: where do we stand?

This study assesses the rapidly growing literature on scoring rule auctions (SRA), in which all participants submit a multidimensional bid comprising prices and levels of one or more qualities. These elements are weighted using a linear combination, that is, the scoring function. The result of this function is a score and the bid that obtains the highest score is awarded the contract. We provide a comprehensive overview of key theoretical and empirical results. In addition, we discuss structural estimation techniques applied to SRA and we conclude with three main limitations of this awarding mechanism.