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The public choice of urban water service management: a multi-criteria approach

Author

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  • Alberto Ruiz-Villaverde

    (Departamento de Economía Aplicada. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales. Campus de Cartuja, s/n, 18071. GRANADA)

  • Francisco Gónzalez-Gómez

    (Departamento de Economía Aplicada. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales. Campus de Cartuja, s/n, 18071. GRANADA)

Abstract

Local governments have to take decisions in increasingly complex contexts. Among other decisions, in countries where it is permitted by the legal framework, local policymakers have to choose the type of management of local public services. The importance of the urban water service and the variety of criteria to be considered in the management choice make it advisable that local government should consider the existing tools to rationalize the decision-making. Different Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) facilitates decision-making processes in situations where several criteria must be taken into account. This paper applies an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to analyze the decision on the urban water service management in Granada, city in southern Spain. An assessment through an ex-post analysis is aimed to conclude whether the choice was appropriate and, therefore, whether or not the City Council should reconsider its past decision. The main conclusion is that the decision was consistent.

Suggested Citation

  • Alberto Ruiz-Villaverde & Francisco Gónzalez-Gómez, 2011. "The public choice of urban water service management: a multi-criteria approach," Working Papers 1101, Department of Applied Economics II, Universidad de Valencia.
    • Handle: RePEc:eec:wpaper:1101
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    Cited by:

    1. Ruiz-Villaverde, Alberto & Picazo-Tadeo, Andrés J. & González-Gómez, Francisco, 2015. "The ‘social choice’ of privatising urban water services: A case study of Madrid in Spain," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 616-629.
    2. O. Flores Baquero & J. Gallego-Ayala & R. Giné-Garriga & A. Jiménez-Fernández. Palencia & A. Pérez-Foguet, 2017. "The Influence of the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation Normative Content in Measuring the Level of Service," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 133(2), pages 763-786, September.

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    Keywords

    Urban water management; public choice; Multi-criteria analysis; Analytic Hierarchy Process equation; Spanish regions;
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