IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/juipol/v34y2015icp36-44.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tariff recommendations: A Panacea for the Portuguese water sector?

Author

Listed:
  • Pinto, Francisco Silva
  • Marques, Rui Cuhna

Abstract

In Portugal, in the early twenty first century, the water utilities industry was still quite complex displaying considerable financial shortcomings. That issue occurred, mainly, at the retail level due to faulty rate setting practices, stressing, perhaps, arbitrariness and political influence in price-setting strategies. To cope with that situation, the water sector regulator published tariff guidelines to harmonize cost analyses, tariff structures and levels, creating a basis for comparison. The suggestion of two-part tariffs with increasing block rates seems to lack enough flexibility and proper supporting material. Thus, our analysis focuses on assessing whether the recommendations issued are able to achieve the proposed objectives through the suggested procedures, reviewing the structure proposed and possible adjustments.

Suggested Citation

  • Pinto, Francisco Silva & Marques, Rui Cuhna, 2015. "Tariff recommendations: A Panacea for the Portuguese water sector?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 36-44.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:juipol:v:34:y:2015:i:c:p:36-44
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2014.12.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0957178714000940
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jup.2014.12.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roseta-Palma, Catarina & Monteiro, Henrique, 2008. "Pricing for Scarcity," MPRA Paper 10384, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. J. A. Johnson, 1971. "Economic Analysis of Sewer Service Charge Formulas," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 47(1), pages 80-86.
    3. Darwin C. Hall, 2009. "Politically Feasible, Revenue Sufficient, And Economically Efficient Municipal Water Rates," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 27(4), pages 539-554, October.
    4. David Zetland & Christopher Gasson, 2013. "A global survey of urban water tariffs: are they sustainable, efficient and fair?," International Journal of Water Resources Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 327-342, September.
    5. MICHAEL Nieswiadomy & STEVEN L. Cobb, 1993. "Impact Of Pricing Structure Selectivity On Urban Water Demand," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 11(3), pages 101-113, July.
    6. García-Valiñas, María de los Ángeles & González-Gómez, Francisco & Picazo-Tadeo, Andrés J., 2013. "Is the price of water for residential use related to provider ownership? Empirical evidence from Spain," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 59-69.
    7. Robert McMaster & Daniel F. Mackay, 1998. "Distribution, Equity and Domestic Water Charging Regimes: The Case of Scotland," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(1), pages 85-105, March.
    8. Marie-Estelle Binet & Fabrizio Carlevaro & Michel Paul, 2014. "Estimation of Residential Water Demand with Imperfect Price Perception," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 59(4), pages 561-581, December.
    9. Rita Martins & Luis Cruz & Eduardo Barata, 2013. "Water Price Regulation: A Review of Portuguese Tariff Recommendations," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 197-205, June.
    10. Carvalho, Pedro & Marques, Rui Cunha, 2014. "Computing economies of vertical integration, economies of scope and economies of scale using partial frontier nonparametric methods," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 234(1), pages 292-307.
    11. Beecher, Janice A. & Kalmbach, Jason A., 2013. "Structure, regulation, and pricing of water in the United States: A study of the Great Lakes region," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 32-47.
    12. Castro-Rodriguez, Fidel & Da-Rocha, Jose Maria & Delicado, Pedro, 2002. "Desperately Seeking Theta's: Estimating the Distribution of Consumers under Increasing Block Rates," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 29-58, July.
    13. Bithas, Kostas, 2008. "The sustainable residential water use: Sustainability, efficiency and social equity. The European experience," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1-2), pages 221-229, December.
    14. Ruijs, A. & Zimmermann, A. & van den Berg, M., 2008. "Demand and distributional effects of water pricing policies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2-3), pages 506-516, June.
    15. AfDB AfDB, . "Annual Report 2012," Annual Report, African Development Bank, number 461.
    16. Griffin, Ronald C. & Mjelde, James W., 2011. "Distributing water's bounty," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 116-128.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Molinos-Senante, María & Villegas, Andres & Maziotis, Alexandros, 2019. "Are water tariffs sufficient incentives to reduce water leakages? An empirical approach for Chile," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    2. Casiano Flores, Cesar & Özerol, Gül & Bressers, Hans, 2017. "“Governance restricts”: A contextual assessment of the wastewater treatment policy in the Guadalupe River Basin, Mexico," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 29-40.
    3. Pérez-Urdiales, María & Baerenklau, Kenneth A., 2019. "Learning to live within your (water) budget: Evidence from allocation-based rates," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 205-221.
    4. Martins, Rita & Quintal, Carlota & Cruz, Luís & Barata, Eduardo, 2016. "Water affordability issues in developed countries – The relevance of micro approaches," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(PA), pages 117-123.
    5. Ruiz-Rosa, Inés & García-Rodríguez, Francisco J. & Antonova, Natalia, 2020. "Developing a methodology to recover the cost of wastewater reuse: A proposal based on the polluter pays principle," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    6. D'Amore, Gabriella & Landriani, Loris & Lepore, Luigi, 2021. "Ownership and sustainability of Italian water utilities: The stakeholder role," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    7. Alemken Jegnie & James Fogarty & Sayed Iftekhar, 2023. "Urban Residential Water Demand and Household Size: A Robust Meta‐Regression Analysis," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 99(326), pages 436-453, September.
    8. Vilarinho, Hermilio & D’Inverno, Giovanna & Nóvoa, Henriqueta & Camanho, Ana S., 2023. "Performance analytics for regulation in retail water utilities: Guiding asset management by identifying peers and targets," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    9. De Oliveira Alberto, 2020. "Financial innovations and sanitation services: the battle between low-income users and shareholders," Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, Sciendo, vol. 47(47), pages 63-74, March.
    10. Cooper, Bethany & Crase, Lin, 2016. "Governing water service provision: Lessons from Australia," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(PA), pages 42-47.
    11. Molinos-Senante, María & Donoso, Guillermo, 2016. "Water scarcity and affordability in urban water pricing: A case study of Chile," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(PA), pages 107-116.
    12. Marta Suárez-Varela & Roberto Martínez-Espiñeira, 2018. "A proposal for the analysis of price escalation within water tariffs: The impact of the Water Framework Directive in Spain," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(4), pages 726-749, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mónica Maldonado-Devis & Vicent Almenar-Llongo, 2021. "A Panel Data Estimation of Domestic Water Demand with IRT Tariff Structure: The Case of the City of Valencia (Spain)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-26, January.
    2. Henrique Monteiro, 2010. "Residential Water Demand in Portugal: checking for efficiency-based justifications for increasing block tariffs," Working Papers Series 1 ercwp0110, ISCTE-IUL, Business Research Unit (BRU-IUL).
    3. Rita Martins & Luis Cruz & Eduardo Barata, 2013. "Water Price Regulation: A Review of Portuguese Tariff Recommendations," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 197-205, June.
    4. Rita Martins & Carlota Quintal & Eduardo Barata & Luís Cruz, 2010. "Water Pricing and Social Equity in Portuguese Municipalities," GEMF Working Papers 2010-17, GEMF, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra.
    5. Barbosa, Alexandro & Brusca, Isabel, 2015. "Governance structures and their impact on tariff levels of Brazilian water and sanitation corporations," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 94-105.
    6. Tomas Havranek & Zuzana Irsova & Tomas Vlach, 2018. "Measuring the Income Elasticity of Water Demand: The Importance of Publication and Endogeneity Biases," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 94(2), pages 259-283.
    7. Zhang, Xue & Rivas, Marcela Gonzalez & Grant, Mary & Warner, Mildred E., 2021. "Water Pricing and Affordability in the US: Public vs Private Ownership," SocArXiv 7mc4r, Center for Open Science.
    8. María Ángeles García-Valiñas & Sara Suárez-Fernández, 2022. "Are Economic Tools Useful to Manage Residential Water Demand? A Review of Old Issues and Emerging Topics," Post-Print hal-04067487, HAL.
    9. Francisco Silva Pinto & Rui Cunha Marques, 2016. "Tariff Suitability Framework for Water Supply Services," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 30(6), pages 2037-2053, April.
    10. Shyama Ratnasiri & Clevo Wilson & Wasantha Athukorala & Maria A. Garcia-Valiñas & Benno Torgler & Robert Gifford, 2018. "Effectiveness of two pricing structures on urban water use and conservation: a quasi-experimental investigation," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 20(3), pages 547-560, July.
    11. Marie-Estelle Binet & Fabrizio Carlevaro & Michel Paul, 2012. "Estimation of Residential Water Demand with Imprecise Price Perception," Economics Working Paper Archive (University of Rennes 1 & University of Caen) 201233, Center for Research in Economics and Management (CREM), University of Rennes 1, University of Caen and CNRS.
    12. María Angeles García Valiñas, 2004. "Eficiencia y equidad en el diseño de precios óptimos para bienes y servicios públicos," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 168(1), pages 95-119, march.
    13. Maria A. García-Valiñas & Roberto Martínez-Francisco & González-Gómez, 2010. "Water affordability: alternativem measurement and explanatory Factors in Andalusia," Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy Papers 1014, Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    14. Barde, Julia Alexa & Lehmann, Paul, 2013. "Distributional effects of water tariff reforms: An empirical study for Lima, Peru," UFZ Discussion Papers 14/2013, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    15. Maria A. García‐Valiñas & Roberto Martínez‐Espiñeira & Francisco González‐Gómez, 2010. "Economics of Water Reform in the Murray-Darling Basin," Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy Papers 1005, Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    16. Vilarinho, Hermilio & D’Inverno, Giovanna & Nóvoa, Henriqueta & Camanho, Ana S., 2023. "Performance analytics for regulation in retail water utilities: Guiding asset management by identifying peers and targets," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    17. Renzetti, Steven & Dupont, Diane P. & Chitsinde, Tina, 2015. "An empirical examination of the distributional impacts of water pricing reforms," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 63-69.
    18. García-López, Marcos & Montano, Borja & Melgarejo, Joaquín, 2022. "Alternative tariff structures and household composition: Evidence from Spain's Valencia region," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    19. Lehmann, Paul, 2011. "Making water affordable to all: A typology and evaluation of options for urban water pricing," UFZ Discussion Papers 10/2011, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    20. Arbues, Fernando & Garcia-Valinas, Maria Angeles & Martinez-Espineira, Roberto, 2003. "Estimation of residential water demand: a state-of-the-art review," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 81-102, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:juipol:v:34:y:2015:i:c:p:36-44. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/utilities-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.