DETERMINATION OF RETAIL PRICES OF PUBLIC SERVICES: AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH TO SOCIAL SECURITY BRAZILIAN

This research investigates Price Management in order to attract clients to public services. The object investigated is Instituto Nacional do Seguro Social - INSS. In this public service the clients-citizens have to contribute monthly to access benefits from this public service. Among many segments attended by INSS the undergraduate students are not obliged to make monthly contributions, but necessary for this segment to access Social Security Benefits. In this sense the problem to be researched is: What is the ideal price range for undergraduate students contribute to INSS? And the objective is to identify an acceptable price range that this segment will increase their accessibility to he services provided by INSS. To that, a Factorial Experiment was carried on to verify the effects of Information Availability and Reference Price variables on to Average Price to Pay Pre-Disposition. The main and interaction effects of the variables were analyzed. The research was conducted with four randomized sample groups considering treatment conditions regarding this experiment. The results provided strong evidences that Information Availability can increase INSS services accessibility and the Average Price to Pay Pre-Disposition concerning undergraduate students. Reference Price use showed a decrease regarding Average Price PreDisposition in this segment, but it is capable in increasing the accessibility concerning to citizens clients.