IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jproda/v53y2020i2d10.1007_s11123-019-00572-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Productivity change in the privatized water sector in China (1999–2006)

Author

Listed:
  • Jinjin Zhao

    (Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics)

Abstract

We estimate the effects of the Chinese water sector’s privatization reforms based on firm-level panel data from 1999 to 2006. By applying a translog stochastic frontier production function and a Parametric Generalized Malmquist Productivity Index, we find that the privatization reforms and the participation of multinational water firms contributed to the performance improvement of the Chinese water sector. The foreign-owned water firms stood at the sector’s productivity frontier and the domestic privately-owned water firms were close to the frontier. However, state-owned water firms had the lowest technical efficiency scores, though they improved modestly over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Jinjin Zhao, 2020. "Productivity change in the privatized water sector in China (1999–2006)," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 227-241, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jproda:v:53:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s11123-019-00572-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s11123-019-00572-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11123-019-00572-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11123-019-00572-7?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. Antonio Estache & MartÌn A. Rossi, 2002. "How Different Is the Efficiency of Public and Private Water Companies in Asia?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 16(1), pages 139-148, June.
    2. Kim Woodbury & Brian Dollery, 2004. "Efficiency Measurement in Australian Local Government: The Case of New South Wales Municipal Water Services," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 21(5), pages 615-636, September.
    3. Katharina Gassner & Alexander Popov & Nataliya Pushak, 2009. "Does Private Sector Participation Improve Performance in Electricity and Water Distribution?," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6605.
    4. E L Lynk, 1993. "Privatisation, joint production and the comparative efficiencies of private and public ownership: the UK water industry case," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 14(2), pages 98-116, May.
    5. Tim Coelli & Antonio Estache & Sergio Perelman & Lourdes Trujillo, 2003. "A Primer on Efficiency Measurement for Utilities and Transport Regulators," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15149.
    6. Wang, Hongwei & Wu, Wenqing & Zheng, Shilin, 2011. "An econometric analysis of private sector participation in China’s urban water supply," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 134-141.
    7. Meeusen, Wim & van den Broeck, J, 1977. "Technical Efficiency and Dimension of the Firm: Some Results on the Use of Frontier Production Functions," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 2(2), pages 109-122.
    8. Crain, W Mark & Zardkoohi, Asghar, 1978. "A Test of the Property-Rights Theory of the Firm: Water Utilities in the United States," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(2), pages 395-408, October.
    9. David Saal & David Parker & Tom Weyman-Jones, 2007. "Determining the contribution of technical change, efficiency change and scale change to productivity growth in the privatized English and Welsh water and sewerage industry: 1985–2000," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 127-139, October.
    10. Hung-jen Wang & Peter Schmidt, 2002. "One-Step and Two-Step Estimation of the Effects of Exogenous Variables on Technical Efficiency Levels," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 129-144, September.
    11. Chambers,Robert G., 1988. "Applied Production Analysis," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521314275, September.
    12. Abbott, Malcolm & Cohen, Bruce, 2009. "Productivity and efficiency in the water industry," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(3-4), pages 233-244, September.
    13. Yi Jiang & Xiaoting Zheng, 2014. "Private Sector Participation and Performance of Urban Water Utilities in China," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63(1), pages 155-189.
    14. Wang, Hung-Jen & Ho, Chia-Wen, 2010. "Estimating fixed-effect panel stochastic frontier models by model transformation," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 157(2), pages 286-296, August.
    15. Teeples, Ronald K & Glyer, David, 1987. "Cost of Water Delivery Systems: Specification and Ownership Effects," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 69(3), pages 399-408, August.
    16. Luis Orea, 2002. "Parametric Decomposition of a Generalized Malmquist Productivity Index," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 5-22, July.
    17. Bottasso, Anna & Conti, Maurizio, 2003. "Cost Inefficiency in the English and Welsh Water Industry: An Heteroskedastic Stochastic Cost Frontier Approach," Economics Discussion Papers 8872, University of Essex, Department of Economics.
    18. Bhattacharyya, Arunava & Harris, Thomas R. & Narayanan, Rangesan & Raffiee, Kambiz, 1995. "Specification and estimation of the effect of ownership on the economic efficiency of the water utilities," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 759-784, December.
    19. Steven Renzetti & Diane P. Dupont, 2009. "Measuring the Technical Efficiency of Municipal Water Suppliers: The Role of Environmental Factors," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 85(4), pages 627-636.
    20. Saal, David S & Parker, David, 2001. "Productivity and Price Performance in the Privatized Water and Sewerage Companies of England and Wales," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 61-90, July.
    21. Wallsten, Scott & Kosec, Katrina, 2008. "The effects of ownership and benchmark competition: An empirical analysis of U.S. water systems," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 186-205, January.
    22. Feigenbaum, Susan & Teeples, Ronald, 1983. "Public versus Private Water Delivery: A Hedonic Cost Approach," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 65(4), pages 672-678, November.
    23. John Vickers & George Yarrow, 1991. "Economic Perspectives on Privatization," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 111-132, Spring.
    24. Bottasso, Anna & Conti, Maurizio, 2009. "Scale economies, technology and technical change in the water industry: Evidence from the English water only sector," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 138-147, March.
    25. Massimo Filippini & Nevenka Hrovatin & Jelena Zorić, 2008. "Cost efficiency of Slovenian water distribution utilities: an application of stochastic frontier methods," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 169-182, April.
    26. Arunava Bhattacharyya & Elliott Parker & Kambiz Raffiee, 1994. "An Examination of the Effect of Ownership on the Relative Efficiency of Public and Private Water Utilities," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 70(2), pages 197-209.
    27. Hu, Jin-Li & Wang, Shih-Chuan & Yeh, Fang-Yu, 2006. "Total-factor water efficiency of regions in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 217-230, December.
    28. Antonio Alvarez & Christine Amsler & Luis Orea & Peter Schmidt, 2006. "Interpreting and Testing the Scaling Property in Models where Inefficiency Depends on Firm Characteristics," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 201-212, June.
    29. Erbetta Fabrizio & Cave Martin, 2007. "Regulation and Efficiency Incentives: Evidence from the England and Wales Water and Sewerage Industry," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 6(4), pages 1-28, December.
    30. Subhash Ray, 1999. "Measuring Scale Efficiency from a Translog Production Function," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 183-194, April.
    31. Peeter Peda & Giuseppe Grossi & Margo Liik, 2013. "Do ownership and size affect the performance of water utilities? Evidence from Estonian municipalities," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 17(2), pages 237-259, May.
    32. Colin Kirkpatrick & David Parker & Yin-Fang Zhang, 2006. "An Empirical Analysis of State and Private-Sector Provision of Water Services in Africa," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 20(1), pages 143-163.
    33. Estache, Antonio & Kouassi, Eugene, 2002. "Sector organization, governance, and the inefficiency of African water utilities," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2890, The World Bank.
    34. Jiang , Yi & Zheng, Xiaoting, 2010. "Private Sector Participation and Performance of Urban Water Utilities in the People's Republic of China," ADB Economics Working Paper Series 237, Asian Development Bank.
    35. Tim Coelli & Denis Lawrence (ed.), 2006. "Performance Measurement and Regulation of Network Utilities," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3801.
    36. Anwandter, Lars & Ozuna, Teofilo Jr., 2002. "Can public sector reforms improve the efficiency of public water utilities?," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(4), pages 687-700, October.
    37. Battese, G E & Coelli, T J, 1995. "A Model for Technical Inefficiency Effects in a Stochastic Frontier Production Function for Panel Data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 325-332.
    38. Aigner, Dennis & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1977. "Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 21-37, July.
    39. David S Saal & David Parker, 2000. "The impact of privatization and regulation on the water and sewerage industry in England and Wales: a translog cost function model," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(6), pages 253-268.
    40. Mugisha, Silver, 2007. "Effects of incentive applications on technical efficiencies: Empirical evidence from Ugandan water utilities," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 225-233, December.
    41. Emanuel Idelovitch & Klas Ringskog, 1995. "Private Sector Participation in Water Supply and Sanitation in Latin America," Reports _017, World Bank Latin America and the Caribean Region Department.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Walter, Matthias & Cullmann, Astrid & von Hirschhausen, Christian & Wand, Robert & Zschille, Michael, 2009. "Quo vadis efficiency analysis of water distribution? A comparative literature review," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(3-4), pages 225-232, September.
    2. Alexandr Akimov & Paul Simshauser, 2018. "Performance measurement in Australian water utilities: Current state and future directions," Discussion Papers in Finance finance:201802, Griffith University, Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics.
    3. Abbott, Malcolm & Cohen, Bruce, 2009. "Productivity and efficiency in the water industry," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(3-4), pages 233-244, September.
    4. Francisco González-Gómez & Miguel García‐Rubio & Francisco Alcalá-Olid & M. Ortega-Díaz, 2013. "Outsourcing and Efficiency in the Management of Rural Water Services," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(3), pages 731-747, February.
    5. Mbuvi, Dorcas & Tarsim, Achraf, 2011. "Managerial ownership and urban water utilities efficiency in Uganda," MERIT Working Papers 2011-036, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    6. Marta Suárez-Varela & María los Ángeles García-Valiñas & Francisco González-Gómez & Andrés J Picazo-Tadeo, 2017. "Ownership and Performance in Water Services Revisited: Does Private Management Really Outperform Public?," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 31(8), pages 2355-2373, June.
    7. Mellah, Thuraya & Ben Amor, Tawfik, 2016. "Performance of the Tunisian Water Utility: An input-distance function approach," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 18-32.
    8. Miguel A. García-Rubio & Francisco González-Gómez & Jorge Guardiola, 2009. "Performance and ownership in the governance of urban water," FEG Working Paper Series 09/03, Faculty of Economics and Business (University of Granada).
    9. Carvalho, Pedro & Marques, Rui Cunha & Berg, Sanford, 2012. "A meta-regression analysis of benchmarking studies on water utilities market structure," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 40-49.
    10. Mande Buafua, Patrick, 2015. "Efficiency of urban water supply in Sub-Saharan Africa: Do organization and regulation matter?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 13-22.
    11. Andrea Guerrini & Giulia Romano & Bettina Campedelli, 2013. "Economies of Scale, Scope, and Density in the Italian Water Sector: A Two-Stage Data Envelopment Analysis Approach," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(13), pages 4559-4578, October.
    12. Tim Coelli & Shannon Walding, 2005. "Performance Measurement in the Australian Water Supply Industry," CEPA Working Papers Series WP012005, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    13. François Destandau & Serge Garcia, 2014. "Service quality, scale economies and ownership: an econometric analysis of water supply costs," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 152-182, October.
    14. Barbosa, Alexandro & Lima, Severino Cesário de & Brusca, Isabel, 2016. "Governance and efficiency in the Brazilian water utilities: A dynamic analysis in the process of universal access," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(PA), pages 82-96.
    15. Roberto Martínez-Espiñeira & Maria A. García-Valiñas & Francisco González-Gómez, 2009. "Does Private Management of Water Supply Services Really Increase Prices? An Empirical Analysis in Spain," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 46(4), pages 923-945, April.
    16. Li, Li, 2018. "Private sector participation and performance of county water utilities in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 30-53.
    17. Bel, Germà & Warner, Mildred, 2008. "Does privatization of solid waste and water services reduce costs? A review of empirical studies," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 52(12), pages 1337-1348.
    18. Michael Zschille & Matthias Walter, 2012. "The performance of German water utilities: a (semi)-parametric analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(29), pages 3749-3764, October.
    19. Guerrini, Andrea & Romano, Giulia & Leardini, Chiara, 2018. "Economies of scale and density in the Italian water industry: A stochastic frontier approach," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 103-111.
    20. Suho Bae & Moon-gi Jeong & Seong-gin Moon, 2015. "Effects of institutional arrangements in local water supply services in Korea," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(4), pages 849-868, November.

    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:kap:jproda:v:53:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s11123-019-00572-7. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.