Abstract
Public procurement systems play a central role in government efficiency, yet there is limited causal evidence on the comparative performance of alternative procurement mechanisms. This study implements a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of adopting an electronic marketplace procurement model, based on supplier accreditation and dynamic purchasing, compared to the traditional electronic reverse auction (pregão eletrônico) widely used in Brazil.
The experiment involves municipalities in the State of Paraíba, Brazil, and focuses on the procurement of standardized medical and hospital supplies. Participating municipalities voluntarily join the study and are randomly assigned to either a treatment group, which adopts the e-marketplace procurement system for selected categories of medical supplies, or a control group that continues using the traditional auction mechanism.
The study evaluates the causal effects of the procurement mechanism on several outcomes, including procurement prices, number of participating suppliers, price dispersion, procurement cycle duration, contract fulfillment rates, and administrative productivity. Randomization is conducted at the municipal level, with municipalities matched on fiscal and socioeconomic characteristics prior to assignment to improve balance.
The experiment aims to contribute to the empirical evaluation of procurement systems and to the broader literature on institutional design and public sector efficiency. More broadly, the study illustrates how randomized controlled trials can be implemented in legal and institutional contexts to identify causal effects of public policy interventions.