That's not necesarily true. The NDA means that Amazon has more information than the cities as was pointed out, so the cities are absolutely at a disadvantage. There's really no circumstance where information asymmetry is a positive thing, since the party with more information could always potentially exploit it. At best, you are no worse off than under information symmetry.
The NDA would have easily allowed Amazon to give the impression that other cities are offering more than they actually are willing to offer. This could have driven up bidding even more than if it were in the open.
You also have to think about incentives here. Why would Amazon want an NDA if it wasn't for their benefit? Are they just trying to avoid bidding wars out of the goodness of their heard?
>The NDA would have easily allowed Amazon to give the impression that other cities are offering more than they actually are willing to offer. This could have driven up bidding even more than if it were in the open.
Have you ever actually participated in an RFP? Its not a two way conversation. Basically (A) gives a list of requirements and then (B) and (C) submit their "bids" to (A). (A) reviews the bids and picks one.
And yes the NDA does benefit Amazon, just like any business benefits from RFP. But non-blind bidding would benefit them a lot more if their desire was to maximize incentives offered.
Blind Example:
(A) sends out a RFP for a service. (B) Bids to do the service for $5,000. (C) Bids to do the service for $6,000. Neither (B) or (C) know each others bids so they bid the lowest they can and still turn a profit.
Non-Blind Example:
(A) sends out a RFP for a service. (B) Bids to do the service for $5,000. (C) Bids to do the service for $4,000 since they can see what (B) bid. (B) then bids $3,000. Both (B) and (C) are in a worse position than if they couldn't see each others bids.
Having more information isn't always helpful. Looks at what happened when regulation made CEO compensation in publicly traded companies public knowledge. CEO compensation rose exponentially.
The NDA would have easily allowed Amazon to give the impression that other cities are offering more than they actually are willing to offer. This could have driven up bidding even more than if it were in the open.
You also have to think about incentives here. Why would Amazon want an NDA if it wasn't for their benefit? Are they just trying to avoid bidding wars out of the goodness of their heard?