Public Sector-operated Price-comparison Websites : Case Studies and Good Practices

World Bank

Washington, DC

关键词: ABBREVIATIONS;    ACRONYMS;    ACTION PLANS;    ADVANCED SEARCH;    ADVERTISEMENTS;   

RP-ID  :  78783

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This technical note is intended toprovide regulators with concrete, practical information onoperating price-comparison websites and the strategicconsiderations necessary to take into account when designingsuch sites. The technical note examines price-comparisonwebsites operated by public sector entities in Canada,Hungary, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, and the UnitedKingdom. The technical note describes the price-comparisontools in these case study countries, comparing differingapproaches and highlighting good practices found acrosscountries. Institutional and structural arrangements werefound to vary across case study countries. Price-comparisonwebsites are operated by either a financial regulator(Hungary, Malaysia) or more commonly by a financial consumeragency set up by the government but operating as anindependent agency (Canada, Ireland, Mexico, Norway, UnitedKingdom). Typically, less sophisticated price-comparisonwebsites provide basic price-comparison tools, while moresophisticated sites provide interactive product-selectiontools and complementary educational materials in anintuitive, easy-to-use format.