Indirect Savings from Public Procurement Centralization
研究发现意大利中央采购机构的设立使自主采购的行政机构价格下降22%，间接节省源于信息外部性，尤其对能力较弱、购买技术复杂商品的买家影响更大。
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.