Reverse Auctioning: Saving Money and Increasing Transparency by Professor David C.Wyld, is the latest report from the IBM Center. It is Professor Wyld’s second on the subject of reverse auctions.

Simply put, reverse auctions are auctions that enable sellers to “bid down” prices for their goods and services. The use of reverse auctions has substantially increased since Wyld’s initial report in 2000, albeit at a slower pace than anticipated in the earlier study. This new report contains original research on the potential of reverse auctions as a government cost-saving tool that also saves time and increases transparency.

Last week, the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform made recommendations to our leaders that identify savings opportunities to reduce the national debt.  The opportunities target roughly the same time horizon as my report does and identifies nearly four times as much potential savings.

The U.S. Social Security Administration touches the lives of most Americans.