IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/waterr/v31y2017i8d10.1007_s11269-016-1376-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Efficiency in the Consolidation of the Italian Water Sector

Author

Listed:
  • Graziano Abrate

    (Università del Piemonte Orientale
    Hermes Research Center)

  • Clementina Bruno

    (Università del Piemonte Orientale
    Hermes Research Center)

  • Fabrizio Erbetta

    (Università del Piemonte Orientale
    Hermes Research Center)

  • Giovanni Fraquelli

    (Università del Piemonte Orientale
    Hermes Research Center
    IRCRES - CNR)

  • Anna Giolitti

    (Hermes Research Center)

Abstract

Despite since the mid-90s the regulation has encouraged horizontal and vertical bundling, the Italian water and sewerage industry is still largely fragmented. This work investigates the potential benefits of the process of consolidation, relying on realistic ex-ante merger hypotheses. A parametric methodology is used to implement the Bogetoft and Wang 2005’s decomposition of potential gains from mergers (J Prod Anal 23:145–171). When looking at strictly technological aspects, results do not provide univocal evidence in favor or against merger strategies, recommending a case-by-case approach in evaluating real merger projects. Moreover, the largest potential gains are due to managerial rather than technological inefficiency, thus their effective ex-post attainment ultimately depend on the ability to tackle the change and on political will.

Suggested Citation

  • Graziano Abrate & Clementina Bruno & Fabrizio Erbetta & Giovanni Fraquelli & Anna Giolitti, 2017. "Efficiency in the Consolidation of the Italian Water Sector," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 31(8), pages 2447-2463, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:waterr:v:31:y:2017:i:8:d:10.1007_s11269-016-1376-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s11269-016-1376-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11269-016-1376-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11269-016-1376-9?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. Richard SIMPER & Thomas WEYMAN‐JONES, 2008. "Evaluating Gains From Mergers In A Non‐Parametric Public Good Model Of Police Services," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 79(1), pages 3-33, March.
    2. Troels Kristensen & Peter Bogetoft & Kjeld Pedersen, 2010. "Potential gains from hospital mergers in Denmark," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 334-345, December.
    3. Fumitoshi Mizutani & Takuya Urakami, 2001. "articles: Identifying network density and scale economies for Japanese water supply organizations," Papers in Regional Science, Springer;Regional Science Association International, vol. 80(2), pages 211-230.
    4. Fried, Harold O. & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Shelton S. (ed.), 2008. "The Measurement of Productive Efficiency and Productivity Growth," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195183528.
    5. Thanassoulis, Emmanuel, 2000. "DEA and its use in the regulation of water companies," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 127(1), pages 1-13, November.
    6. Antonioli, B. & Filippini, M., 2001. "The use of a variable cost function in the regulation of the Italian water industry," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 10(3-4), pages 181-187.
    7. Rita Martins & Adelino Fortunato & Fernando Coelho, 2006. "Cost Structure of the Portuguese Water Industry: a Cubic Cost Function Application," GEMF Working Papers 2006-09, GEMF, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra.
    8. Saal David S. & Arocena Pablo & Maziotis Alexandros & Triebs Thomas, 2013. "Scale and Scope Economies and the Efficient Vertical and Horizontal Configuration of the Water Industry: A Survey of the Literature," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 93-129, March.
    9. Michael Zschille, 2015. "Consolidating the water industry: an analysis of the potential gains from horizontal integration in a conditional efficiency framework," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 97-114, August.
    10. Zschille, Michael, 2015. "Consolidating the Water Industry: an Analysis of the Potential Gains from Horizontal Integration in a Conditional Efficiency Framework," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 44(1), pages 97-114.
    11. Necmiddin Bagdadioglu & Catherine Waddams Price & Thomas Weyman-Jones, 2007. "Measuring Potential Gains from Mergers among Electricity Distribution Companies in Turkey using a Non-Parametric Model," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 83-110.
    12. Miguel A. García-Rubio & Cecilia Tortajada & Francisco González-Gómez, 2016. "Privatising Water Utilities and User Perception of Tap Water Quality: Evidence from Spanish Urban Water Services," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 30(1), pages 315-329, January.
    13. Peter Bogetoft & Dexiang Wang, 2005. "Estimating the Potential Gains from Mergers," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 145-171, May.
    14. 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.
    15. Giulia Romano & Andrea Guerrini & Silvia Vernizzi, 2013. "Ownership, Investment Policies and Funding Choices of Italian Water Utilities: An Empirical Analysis," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(9), pages 3409-3419, July.
    16. Peter Bogetoft & Lars Otto, 2011. "Benchmarking with DEA, SFA, and R," International Series in Operations Research and Management Science, Springer, number 978-1-4419-7961-2, March.
    17. AGRELL, PerJ. & BOGETOFT, Peter & GRAMMELTVEDT, Thor Erik, 2015. "The efficiency of the regulation for horizontal mergers among electricity distribution operators in Norway," LIDAM Reprints CORE 2690, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    18. Takuya Urakami & David Parker, 2011. "The Effects of Consolidation amongst Japanese Water Utilities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(13), pages 2805-2825, October.
    19. 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.
    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. Arocena, Pablo & Saal, David S. & Urakami, Takuya & Zschille, Michael, 2020. "Measuring and decomposing productivity change in the presence of mergers," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 282(1), pages 319-333.
    2. Massarutto, Antonio & Grassetti, Luca & Lambardi di San Miniato, Michele & Moletta, Mattia, 2023. "Efficient firms are all alike, but every inefficient firm is such in its own way: Heterogeneity of costs determinants in the Italian water sector," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    3. Anna Bottasso & Maurizio Conti, 2021. "Economie di integrazione verticale ed economie di scopo nel settore idrico e fognario: alcune considerazioni alla luce dell?evidenza empirica internazionale," ECONOMIA PUBBLICA, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2021(3), pages 89-128.
    4. Ying Li & Yung-Ho Chiu & Tai-Yu Lin & Tzu-Han Chang, 2020. "Pre-Evaluating the Technical Efficiency Gains from Potential Mergers and Acquisitions in the IC Design Industry," International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making (IJITDM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 19(02), pages 525-559, April.

    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. Michael Zschille, 2015. "Consolidating the water industry: an analysis of the potential gains from horizontal integration in a conditional efficiency framework," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 97-114, August.
    2. Michael Zschille, 2012. "Consolidating the Water Industry: An Analysis of the Potential Gains from Horizontal Integration in a Conditional Efficiency Framework," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1187, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    3. Angeliki Flokou & Vassilis Aletras & Dimitris Niakas, 2017. "Decomposition of potential efficiency gains from hospital mergers in Greece," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 467-484, December.
    4. Zschille, Michael, 2012. "Consolidating the Water Industry: An Analysis of the Potential Gains from Horizontal Integration in a Conditional Efficiency Fr," CEPR Discussion Papers 8737, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. 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.
    6. Agrell, Per J. & Teusch, Jonas, 2020. "Predictability and strategic behavior under frontier regulation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    7. Saastamoinen, Antti & Bjørndal, Endre & Bjørndal, Mette, 2017. "Specification of merger gains in the Norwegian electricity distribution industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 96-107.
    8. Saastamoinen, Antti & Bjørndal, Endre & Bjørndal, Mette, 2016. "Specification of merger gains in the Norwegian electricity distribution industry," Discussion Papers 2016/7, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.
    9. Ying Li & Yung-Ho Chiu & Tai-Yu Lin & Tzu-Han Chang, 2020. "Pre-Evaluating the Technical Efficiency Gains from Potential Mergers and Acquisitions in the IC Design Industry," International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making (IJITDM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 19(02), pages 525-559, April.
    10. Michael Zschille, 2014. "Nonparametric measures of returns to scale: an application to German water supply," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 1029-1053, November.
    11. Saal David S. & Arocena Pablo & Maziotis Alexandros & Triebs Thomas, 2013. "Scale and Scope Economies and the Efficient Vertical and Horizontal Configuration of the Water Industry: A Survey of the Literature," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 93-129, March.
    12. Shao-Yin Hsu & Ching-Cheng Lu & Yan-Hui Xiao & Yung-ho Chiu, 2024. "Two-Stage Evaluation of the Pre-merger Potential Gains of Taiwan Financial Holding Companies: Dynamic Network Slack-Based Measure Analysis Approach," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 64(4), pages 2131-2178, October.
    13. Michael Zschille, 2014. "Marktstrukturen in der Trinkwasserversorgung," DIW Roundup: Politik im Fokus 43, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    14. Michael Zschille, 2016. "Cost Structure and Economies of Scale in German Water Supply," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1576, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    15. Yan He & Yung-ho Chiu & Bin Zhang, 2020. "Prevaluating Technical Efficiency Gains From Potential Mergers and Acquisitions in China’s Coal Industry," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(3), pages 21582440209, July.
    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    18. Augusto Mercadier & Walter Cont & Gustavo Ferro, 2016. "Economies of scale in Peru’s water and sanitation sector," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 215-228, April.
    19. Arocena, Pablo & Saal, David S. & Urakami, Takuya & Zschille, Michael, 2020. "Measuring and decomposing productivity change in the presence of mergers," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 282(1), pages 319-333.
    20. 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.

    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:spr:waterr:v:31:y:2017:i:8:d:10.1007_s11269-016-1376-9. 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.