FNE: school textbooks in private schools can cost up to 42 times more than in the public system – Economy

The Office of the National Economic Prosecutor (FNE) announced that he had begun conducting a new market study, this time on textbooks, after those already done in areas such as life annuities, notaries and drugs. In this context, and thanks to previous research, the agency was able to detect that a text with similar characteristics could cost an average of 29 times more on the private market than on the French market. State, reaching more than 40 times in some cases.

According to the FNE, thanks to the badysis, he was able to identify six reasons which, in his opinion, "justify the realization of this work". In the first place, he found that the purchase of textbooks represented an annual expenditure of about US $ 116 million, which represents "a significant monetary expense, both for the State and for the families whose children attend private educational institutions ". [19659005] The FNE announces the launch of its fourth market study, which will badyze the competitive evolution of the textbook market. pic.twitter.com/u7wEhyaP1J

– FNE_Chile (@ChileFne) 30 October 2018

In the breakdown, the FNE estimated a total expenditure of at 64 million US dollars for the year 2018 in the private sector, which corresponds to $ 160,000 per pupil for families who buy books through this method.

The entity also detected a high market concentration, which reached 80% of sales in the hands of two companies in the case of the state market. On the private side, "publishers would get rents supra-competitive" being privileged because those who decide texts to acquire are the authorities of schools and not lawyers.

On this last point, the differences on average 29 times more for a text of similar characteristics marketed on the private market than on the state market, reaching more than 40 times in some cases.

For example, the FNE puts on the table the case of a text of Language and Communication for the third edition of an publishing house, for which the State paid 877 dollars and whose simile was sold on the private market by the same publisher in 36,900 . In other words, the price was 42 times higher for representatives of private schools.

The other reasons that the FNE conducts the study are the existence of barriers to entry into the state market. In addition, the agency noted that the offers made by the Ministry of Education to acquire the books were poorly designed.

In conclusion, the FNE stated that conducting the market study "corroborates the hypothesis of the lack of competition". In this regard, the National Economic Prosecutor, Mario Ybar, has stated that "there are spaces in the public and private market for school texts that do not work properly from the point of view of competition, which would cause commercial conditions accessible to both the state and consumers are not optimal, which would be due to the low intensity of competition in the textbook market. "

The agency explained that Based on the schedule defined for this badysis, the final version of the study will be published in April of next year, once stakeholder comments have been addressed in the draft, which will be available between February and March 2019.

For those interested in participating FNE decided that they could make written presentations to the institution or request meetings with the team in charge of for crazy rnir information, previous contact to the box [email protected]