IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wsi/wepxxx/v06y2020i02ns2382624x20500010.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Performance Assessment Using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Water Utilities: A Primer

Author

Listed:
  • Sanford V. Berg

    (Economics, University of Florida, Gainesville, United States2Public Utility Research Center, University of Florida, Gainesville, United States)

Abstract

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are widely recognized as a basis for evaluating water utility operations in developing countries and for designing both regulatory and managerial incentives that improve performance. A number of methodolgies can be used for assessing performance, with KPIs and overall performance indicators serving as more comprehensible and potentially more comprehensive than more technical empirical benchmarking studies. Data initiatives in low and middle income countries require resources that could be used for other activities with more immediate payoffs. However, regulatory oversight requires data analysis of trends, current performance, and realistic targets. Quantitative studies can provide clues regarding the extent of economies of scale, scope, and density, but policy-makers need much more detail and specificity than most scholars provide. Here, the focus is on information systems that provide accurate, reliable, and relevant data. KPIs represent the foundation for those developing, implementing, and responding to public policy — incentivizing water utilities in developing (and developed) countries to contain costs, improve service quality, and expand water access over the long run.

Suggested Citation

  • Sanford V. Berg, 2020. "Performance Assessment Using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Water Utilities: A Primer," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 6(02), pages 1-25, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:wepxxx:v:06:y:2020:i:02:n:s2382624x20500010
    DOI: 10.1142/S2382624X20500010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S2382624X20500010
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1142/S2382624X20500010?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. Corton, Maria Luisa, 2003. "Benchmarking in the Latin American water sector: the case of Peru," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 133-142, September.
    2. Daniel W. Bromley & Glen Anderson, 2018. "Does Water Governance Matter?," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 4(03), pages 1-32, July.
    3. Berg, Sanford V. & Phillips, Michelle A., 2017. "Data availability as a key tool for regulating government-owned water utilities," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 30-37.
    4. John G. Lynch & Thomas E. Buzas & Sanford V. Berg, 1994. "Regulatory Measurement and Evaluation of Telephone Service Quality," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(2), pages 169-194, February.
    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. Victor O. Ojo & M. Sohail, 2023. "Assessing the Performance of State Water Utilities in Nigeria: Towards Achieving the Sustainable Development Goal on Drinking Water," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-23, December.
    2. Bako Kinga-Erzsebet & Fulop Arpad-Zoltan, 2021. "The Efficiency Equation For Water And Wastewater Operators In Romania," Annals - Economy Series, Constantin Brancusi University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1, pages 168-175, February.

    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. Chen Lin & Sanford Berg, 2008. "Incorporating Service Quality into Yardstick Regulation: An Application to the Peru Water Sector," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 32(1), pages 53-75, February.
    2. 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.
    3. Gary M. Thompson, 1997. "Labor staffing and scheduling models for controlling service levels," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(8), pages 719-740, December.
    4. Abbott, Malcolm & Cohen, Bruce, 2009. "Productivity and efficiency in the water industry," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(3-4), pages 233-244, September.
    5. Resende, Marcelo & Otavio Facanha, Luis, 2005. "Price-cap regulation and service-quality in telecommunications: an empirical study," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 1-12, January.
    6. Lin, Chen, 2005. "Service quality and prospects for benchmarking: Evidence from the Peru water sector," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 230-239, September.
    7. Madrigal, Róger & Alpízar, Francisco & Schlüter, Achim, 2010. "Determinants of Performance of Drinking-Water Community Organizations: A Comparative Analysis of Case Studies in Rural Costa Rica," RFF Working Paper Series dp-10-03-efd, Resources for the Future.
    8. Romano, Giulia & Guerrini, Andrea, 2011. "Measuring and comparing the efficiency of water utility companies: A data envelopment analysis approach," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 202-209.
    9. Facanha, Luis Otavio & Resende, Marcelo, 2004. "Price cap regulation, incentives and quality:: The case of Brazilian telecommunications," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 133-144, November.
    10. Madrigal, Roger & Alpizar, Francisco & Schluter, Achim, 2011. "Individual Perceptions and the Performance of Community-Based Drinking Water Organizations," RFF Working Paper Series dp-11-07-efd, Resources for the Future.
    11. Seroa da Motta, Ronaldo & Moreira, Ajax, 2006. "Efficiency and regulation in the sanitation sector in Brazil," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 185-195, September.
    12. Dong, Songting & Ding, Min & Huber, Joel, 2010. "A simple mechanism to incentive-align conjoint experiments," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 25-32.
    13. Daniel, D. & Pande, Saket & Rietveld, Luuk, 2022. "Endogeneity in water use behaviour across case studies of household water treatment adoption in developing countries," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    14. Cahn, Amir & Katz, David & Ghermandi, Andrea & Prevos, Peter, 2023. "Adoption of data-as-a-service by water and wastewater utilities," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    15. Tim Coelli & Denis Lawrence (ed.), 2006. "Performance Measurement and Regulation of Network Utilities," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3801.
    16. Weisman, Dennis L., 2005. "Price regulation and quality," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 165-174, March.
    17. Konstantinos Tsagarakis, 2013. "Does Size Matter? Operating Cost Coverage for Water Utilities," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(5), pages 1551-1562, March.
    18. David Sappington & Dennis Weisman, 2010. "Price cap regulation: what have we learned from 25 years of experience in the telecommunications industry?," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 227-257, December.
    19. Higuerey, Angel & Trujillo, Lourdes & González, María Manuela, 2017. "Has efficiency improved after the decentralization in the water industry in Venezuela?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 127-136.
    20. 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.

    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:wsi:wepxxx:v:06:y:2020:i:02:n:s2382624x20500010. 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: Tai Tone Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.worldscinet.com/wep/wep.shtml .

    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.