Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/289950 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
IDB Working Paper Series No. IDB-WP-1441
Publisher: 
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Washington, DC
Abstract: 
The paper examines the impact of providing market-based reference prices on public procurement efficiency in Brazil. Specifically, the study focuses on the State Secretariat of Health (SES) in Rio Grande do Sul and the algorithm developed by the local tax administration to calculate representative reference prices for pharmaceutical products. Unlike previous studies, reference prices are calculated based on the universe of local business-to-business transactions. The study finds that SES procurement officers' access to this information caused a significant reduction in purchase unit prices, particularly for products characterized by a higher ex-ante unit price, a smaller number of suppliers, and purchased by a smaller number of public institutions. The gains in efficiency are attributed to the use of up-to-date market information, which is particularly useful for products where information asymmetry is more likely to exist between procurement officers and private providers.
Subjects: 
Public procurement
reference prices
electronic invoicing
Brazil
JEL: 
D40
H51
H57
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
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Document Type: 
Working Paper

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