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Water services in Italy: implementation of the reform and efficiency of providers

Author

Listed:
  • Michele Benvenuti

    (Banca d'Italia)

  • Elena Gennari

    (Banca d'Italia)

Abstract

The paper investigates the organization of the Italian water sector in the light of the reforms of public utilities. The aim is to examine the degree of implementation of the water sector reform (the so-called Galli Law of 1994) and assess the performance of operators through a study of their financial indicators and a non-parametric efficiency analysis. The information sources include two Bank of Italy surveys carried out in 2007 on local public water authorities and local water service providers. Financial indicators point to a low return on equity: for more than half of the firms it is lower than the risk-free interest rate. The non-parametric efficiency analysis does not reveal significant economies of scope and highlights a certain degree of variability of technical efficiency scores. This suggests that there is room for efficiency gains through the introduction of comparative competitive mechanisms such as the yardstick competition.

Suggested Citation

  • Michele Benvenuti & Elena Gennari, 2008. "Water services in Italy: implementation of the reform and efficiency of providers," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 23, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    • Handle: RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_23_08
    as

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    File URL: https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/qef/2008-0023/QEF_23.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    water supply; data envelopment analysis; public utilities; natural monopoly; regulation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K23 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Regulated Industries and Administrative Law
    • L95 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Gas Utilities; Pipelines; Water Utilities
    • Q25 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Water
    • C61 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • H42 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Private Goods
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation

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