IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirc/v34y2016i8p1540-1555.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Neoliberalism and sustainable urban water sectors: A critical reflection of sector characteristics and empirical evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Eva Lieberherr
  • Lea Fuenfschilling

Abstract

Urban water sectors in industrialised countries are increasingly facing a diverse range of challenges. Aging assets, environmental concerns and economic issues put pressure on the current governance and organisation of these sectors. In recent years, a plethora of neoliberal reforms have been initiated in various countries as efforts to counteract these developments. While rather successful in infrastructure sectors, such as energy or telecommunication, neoliberal reforms have proven difficult in many industrialised, urban water sectors. The article argues that this is related to distinct characteristics of the water sectors. Specificities include large-scale technologies, high externalities and the nature of the good. This article analyses these key characteristics of urban water sectors and shows their implications and challenges for neoliberal reforms by drawing on the privatisation of the English water sectors. The results show key trade-offs between economic and environmental issues, and less with social goals.

Suggested Citation

  • Eva Lieberherr & Lea Fuenfschilling, 2016. "Neoliberalism and sustainable urban water sectors: A critical reflection of sector characteristics and empirical evidence," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(8), pages 1540-1555, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:34:y:2016:i:8:p:1540-1555
    DOI: 10.1177/0263774X15625994
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0263774X15625994
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0263774X15625994?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Evers, Hans-Dieter & Benedikter, Simon, 2009. "Strategic Group Formation in the Mekong Delta: The Development of a Modern Hydraulic Society," MPRA Paper 17131, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Mehdi Farsi & Aurelio Fetz & Massimo Filippini, 2007. "Economies of Scale and Scope in the Swiss Multi-Utilities Sector," CEPE Working paper series 07-59, CEPE Center for Energy Policy and Economics, ETH Zurich.
    3. Claude Ménard & Michel Ghertman, 2009. "Regulation, Deregulation and Reregulation: Institutional Perspectives," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00496216, HAL.
    4. Petersen, Thomas & Klauer, Bernd & Manstetten, Reiner, 2009. "The environment as a challenge for governmental responsibility -- The case of the European Water Framework Directive," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 2058-2065, May.
    5. P. Luís-manso & M. Finger, 2009. "Reforms in the Urban Water Sector: A Vulnerability Analysis of the Main Elements at Risk," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, Intersentia, vol. 10(2), pages 115-139, June.
    6. Karen J. Bakker, 2000. "Privatizing Water, Producing Scarcity: The Yorkshire Drought of 1995," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 76(1), pages 4-25, January.
    7. 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.
    8. Eduardo Araral & Yahua Wang, 2013. "Water Governance 2.0: A Review and Second Generation Research Agenda," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(11), pages 3945-3957, September.
    9. Claude Ménard, 2009. "From Technical Integrity to Institutional Coherence: Regulatory Challenges in the Water Sector," Chapters, in: Claude Ménard & Michel Ghertman (ed.), Regulation, Deregulation, Reregulation, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Claude Ménard & Michel Ghertman (ed.), 2009. "Regulation, Deregulation, Reregulation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13188.
    11. Graeme Guthrie, 2006. "Regulating Infrastructure: The Impact on Risk and Investment," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 44(4), pages 925-972, December.
    12. Dassler, Thoralf & Parker, David & Saal, David S., 2006. "Methods and trends of performance benchmarking in UK utility regulation," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 166-174, September.
    13. Graham, Stephen & Marvin, Simon, 1994. "Cherry picking and social dumping : Utilities in the 1990s," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 113-119, April.
    14. Sabine Kuhlmann, 2008. "Reforming local public services," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(5), pages 573-596, September.
    15. Matthias Finger & Rolf Künneke, 2011. "Introduction," Chapters, in: Matthias Finger & Rolf W. Künneke (ed.), International Handbook of Network Industries, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    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. Fuenfschilling, Lea & Binz, Christian, 2017. "Global socio-technical regimes," Papers in Innovation Studies 2017/1, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    2. Fuenfschilling, Lea & Binz, Christian, 2018. "Global socio-technical regimes," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 735-749.
    3. Morris, Jonathan & McGuinness, Martina, 2019. "Liberalisation of the English water industry: What implications for consumer engagement, environmental protection, and water security?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1-1.

    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. Thomas Bolognesi & Antoine Brochet & Yvan Renou, 2021. "Assessing socio-technical resistance to public policy instruments: Insights from water performance indicators in the Grenoble area (France)," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(7), pages 1407-1435, November.
    2. Spiller, Pablo T., 2013. "Transaction cost regulation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 232-242.
    3. Aad Correljé & Martijn Groenleer & Jasper Veldman, 2013. "Understanding institutional change: the development of institutions for the regulation of natural gas transportation systems in the US and the EU," RSCAS Working Papers 2013/07, European University Institute.
    4. P Codani & Marc Petit & Yannick Perez, 2018. "Innovation et règles inefficaces : le cas des véhicules électriques," Post-Print halshs-01980639, HAL.
    5. Worch, Hagen & Truffer, Bernhard & Kabinga, Mundia & Eberhard, Anton & Markard, Jochen, 2013. "A capability perspective on performance deficiencies in utility firms," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 1-9.
    6. Jean-Michel Glachant & Haikel Khalfallah & Yannick Perez & Vincent Rious & Marcelo Saguan, 2013. "Implementing incentive regulation through an alignment with resource bounded regulators," Post-Print halshs-00767872, HAL.
    7. Richard Meade & Seini O’Connor, 2011. "Comparison of Long-term Contracts and Vertical Integration in Decentralized Electricity Markets," Chapters, in: Jean-Michel Glachant & Dominique Finon & Adrien de Hauteclocque (ed.), Competition, Contracts and Electricity Markets, chapter 4, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Thomas Bolognesi, 2014. "The paradox of the modernisation of urban water systems in Europe: Intrinsic institutional limits for sustainability," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 38(4), pages 270-281, November.
    9. Hagen Worch & Bernhard Truffer & Mundia Kabinga & Jochen Markard & Anton Eberhard, 2012. "Tackling the Capability Gap in Utility Firms: Applying Management Research to Infrastructure Sectors," CID Working Papers 55, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    10. Bensch, Gunther, 2019. "The effects of market-based reforms on access to electricity in developing countries: a systematic review," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 11(2), pages 165-188.
    11. Fremeth, Adam R. & Holburn, Guy L. F. & Piazza, Alessandro, 2021. "Activist Protest Spillovers into the Regulatory Domain: Theory and Evidence from the U.S. Nuclear Power Generation Industry," OSF Preprints s39h2, Center for Open Science.
    12. Bernard Hoekman, 2015. "International Cooperation on Public Procurement Regulation," RSCAS Working Papers 2015/88, European University Institute.
    13. J-M- Glachant & H. Khalfallah & Y. Perez & V. Rious & M. Saguan, 2013. "Implementing Incentive Regulation and Regulatory Alignment with Resource Bounded Regulators," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, Intersentia, vol. 14(3), pages 265-291, September.
    14. Roques, Fabien & Finon, Dominique, 2017. "Adapting electricity markets to decarbonisation and security of supply objectives: Toward a hybrid regime?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 584-596.
    15. Arve, Malin & Zwart, Gijsbert, 2023. "Optimal procurement and investment in new technologies under uncertainty," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    16. Schreiner, Lena & Madlener, Reinhard, 2022. "Investing in power grid infrastructure as a flexibility option: A DSGE assessment for Germany," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    17. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/eu4vqp9ompqllr09hc03jc5h8 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Adamou, Pr. Rabani & Ibrahim, Boubacar & Bonkaney, Abdou Latif & Seyni, Abdoul Aziz & Idrissa, Mamoudou, 2021. "Niger - Land, climate, energy, agriculture and development: A study in the Sudano-Sahel Initiative for Regional Development, Jobs, and Food Security," Working Papers 308806, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    19. Hahn, Robert & Evans, Lewis, 2010. "Regulating Dynamic Markets: Progress in Theory and Practice," Working Paper Series 4052, Victoria University of Wellington, The New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation.
    20. Hoernig, Steffen & Cambini, Carlo, 2013. "Cooperative Investment, Uncertainty and Access," CEPR Discussion Papers 9376, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    21. Vareda João & Hoernig Steffen, 2010. "Racing for Investment under Mandatory Access," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-31, July.

    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:sae:envirc:v:34:y:2016:i:8:p:1540-1555. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.