TY  - BOOK
AU  - Lotti, Clarissa
AU  -  Muco, Arieda
AU  -  Spagnolo, Giancarlo
AU  -  Valletti, Tommaso
TI  - Indirect Savings from Public Procurement Centralization
SN  - 1945-7731
PB  - American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
KW  -  Information and Knowledge
KW  -  Learning
KW  -  Public Sector Accounting and Audits
KW  - Public Administration
N2  - Centralization of public procurement can lower prices for the government's direct purchase of goods and services. This paper focuses on indirect savings. Public administrations that do not procure directly through a central procurement agency might benefit from the availability of centrally procured goods. We exploit the introduction of a central purchasing agency in Italy and find that prices came down by 22 percent among administrations that bought autonomously. These indirect effects appear to be driven by informational externalities, especially for less competent public buyers purchasing technologically more complex goods. Accounting for indirect savings increases the estimate of direct ones
UR  - https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20220357
ER  -