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The long-term reform of the water and wastewater industry: The case of Melbourne in Australia

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  • Abbott, Malcolm
  • Wang, Wei Chun
  • Cohen, Bruce

Abstract

Since the 1980s, one of the most important parts of Australian microeconomic reform has been the restructuring of the country's government owned utilities - including water supply and wastewater disposal. This process was encouraged by the perception that the state owned authorities performed poorly in the 1970s and 1980s. This paper analyses economic performance of the Melbourne water and wastewater industry from the early 1970s. Over the longer term, the industry has improved its economic performance in terms of productivity and returns to the shareholder, however, consumers have not substantially benefited from this process in terms of lower prices.

Suggested Citation

  • Abbott, Malcolm & Wang, Wei Chun & Cohen, Bruce, 2011. "The long-term reform of the water and wastewater industry: The case of Melbourne in Australia," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 115-122, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:juipol:v:19:y:2011:i:2:p:115-122
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Productivity Commission, 2008. "Towards Urban Water Reform: A Discussion Paper," Research Papers 0801, Productivity Commission, Government of Australia.
    2. Malcolm Abbott & Bruce Cohen, 2010. "Industry Structure Issues in the Water and Wastewater Sectors in Australia," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 29(1), pages 48-63, March.
    3. Abbott, Malcolm & Cohen, Bruce, 2009. "Productivity and efficiency in the water industry," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(3-4), pages 233-244, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Fuenfschilling, Lea & Truffer, Bernhard, 2014. "The structuration of socio-technical regimes—Conceptual foundations from institutional theory," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 772-791.
    2. Guerrini, Andrea & Romano, Giulia & Mancuso, Fabrizio & Carosi, Laura, 2016. "Identifying the performance drivers of wastewater treatment plants through conditional order-m efficiency analysis," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 20-31.
    3. Pollitt, Michael G. & Steer, Steven J., 2012. "Economies of scale and scope in network industries: Lessons for the UK water and sewerage sectors," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 17-31.
    4. A. Guerrini & G. Romano & L. Carosi & F. Mancuso, 2017. "Cost Savings in Wastewater Treatment Processes: the Role of Environmental and Operational Drivers," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 31(8), pages 2465-2478, June.
    5. Malcolm Abbott & Bruce Cohen, 2017. "Drawing a Line in the Sand: Valuing Regulated Assets of the Australian Water Industry," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 36(1), pages 32-48, March.
    6. Furlong, Casey & Gan, Kein & De Silva, Saman, 2016. "Governance of Integrated Urban Water Management in Melbourne, Australia," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(PA), pages 48-58.
    7. Fuenfschilling, Lea & Truffer, Bernhard, 2016. "The interplay of institutions, actors and technologies in socio-technical systems — An analysis of transformations in the Australian urban water sector," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 298-312.
    8. Jian Chang & Wanhua Li & Yaodong Zhou & Peng Zhang & Hengxin Zhang, 2022. "Impact of Public Service Quality on the Efficiency of the Water Industry: Evidence from 147 Cities in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-17, November.
    9. Müller, Nicole A. & Marlow, David R. & Moglia, Magnus, 2016. "Business model in the context of Sustainable Urban Water Management - A comparative assessment between two urban regions in Australia and Germany," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 148-159.

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