IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/soz/wpaper/9803.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Estimation of an Average Cost Frontier to Calculate Benchmark Tariffs for Electricity Distribution

Author

Listed:
  • Massimo Filippini

    (Centre for Energy Policy and Economics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich)

  • Joerg Wild

    (Socioeconomic Institute, University of Zurich)

Abstract

In this paper we have examined the scale and cost inefficiency of a sample of Swiss electricity distribution utilities. To do so, we have considered estimation of a stochastic frontier average cost model using the approach suggested by Schmidt and Sickles (1984) for panel data. A translog cost function was estimated using panel data for a sample of 30 municipal utilities over the period 1992-1996. The results indicate the existence of economies of output and customer density and economies of scale. Moreover, the findings on cost inefficiency show that a majority of the distribution utilities is not producing at the minimum level of the cost and that a possible application of the frontier methodology employed in this paper relates to the regulation and benchmarking of the delivery rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Massimo Filippini & Joerg Wild, 1998. "The Estimation of an Average Cost Frontier to Calculate Benchmark Tariffs for Electricity Distribution," SOI - Working Papers 9803, Socioeconomic Institute - University of Zurich.
    • Handle: RePEc:soz:wpaper:9803
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/51848/1/wp9803.pdf
    File Function: First version, 1998
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Massimo Filippini, 1998. "Are Municipal Electricity Distribution Utilities Natural Monopolies?," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(2), pages 157-174, June.
    2. Randy A. Nelson. & Walter J. Primeaux, Jr., 1988. "The Effects of Competition on Transmission and Distribution Costs in the Municipal Electric Industry," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 64(4), pages 338-346.
    3. Filippini, Massimo & Maggi, Rico, 1993. "Efficiency and Regulation in the Case of the Swiss Private Railways," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 199-216, June.
    4. Simar, L., 1991. "Estimating efficiencies from frontier models with panel data: a comparison of parametric, non-parametric and semi-parametric methods with boot strapping," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 1991026, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    5. Leland Gerson Neuberg, 1977. "Two Issues in the Municipal Ownership of Electric Power Distribution," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 8(1), pages 303-323, Spring.
    6. Schmidt, Peter & Sickles, Robin C, 1984. "Production Frontiers and Panel Data," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 2(4), pages 367-374, October.
    7. Burns, Philip & Weyman-Jones, Thomas G, 1996. "Cost Functions and Cost Efficiency in Electricity Distribution: A Stochastic Frontier Approach," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 41-64, January.
    8. Battese, George E., 1992. "Frontier production functions and technical efficiency: a survey of empirical applications in agricultural economics," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 7(3-4), pages 185-208, October.
    9. Paul W. Bauer, 1988. "Decomposing TFP growth in the presence of cost inefficiency, nonconstant returns to scale, and technological progress," Working Papers (Old Series) 8813, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    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. Jamasb, T. & Nillesen, P. & Pollitt, M., 2003. "Strategic Behaviour under Regulation Benchmarking," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0312, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    2. Dominik Schober, 2013. "Refinancing under Yardstick Regulation with Investment Cycles–The Case of Long-Lived Electricity Network Assets," EWL Working Papers 1321, University of Duisburg-Essen, Chair for Management Science and Energy Economics, revised Jun 2013.
    3. Schober, Dominik & Weber, Christoph, 2015. "Refinancing under yardstick regulation with investment cycles: The case of long-lived electricity network assets," ZEW Discussion Papers 15-065, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    4. Jamasb, Tooraj & Nillesen, Paul & Pollitt, Michael, 2004. "Strategic behaviour under regulatory benchmarking," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 825-843, September.

    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. Massimo Filippini & Jörg Wild & Michael Kuenzle, 2001. "Scale and cost efficiency in the Swiss electricity distribution industry: evidence from a frontier cost approach," CEPE Working paper series 01-08, CEPE Center for Energy Policy and Economics, ETH Zurich.
    2. Filippini, Massimo & Wild, Jorg, 2001. "Regional differences in electricity distribution costs and their consequences for yardstick regulation of access prices," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 477-488, July.
    3. Mehdi Farsi & Massimo Filippini, 2004. "Regulation and Measuring Cost-Efficiency with Panel Data Models: Application to Electricity Distribution Utilities," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 25(1), pages 1-19, August.
    4. Dimitri Dimitropoulos and Adonis Yatchew, 2017. "Is Productivity Growth in Electricity Distribution Negative? An Empirical Analysis Using Ontario Data," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    5. repec:bdr:ensayo:v::y:2005:i:49:p:88-132 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Rodríguez Pardina, Martín & Rossi, Martín & Ruzzier, Christian, 1999. "Fronteras de eficiencia en el sector de distribución de energía eléctrica: la experiencia sudamericana," UADE Textos de Discusión 15_1999, Instituto de Economía, Universidad Argentina de la Empresa.
    7. Liu, Xiao-Yan & Pollitt, Michael G. & Xie, Bai-Chen & Liu, Li-Qiu, 2019. "Does environmental heterogeneity affect the productive efficiency of grid utilities in China?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 333-344.
    8. Ajayi, Victor & Weyman-Jones, Thomas & Glass, Anthony, 2017. "Cost efficiency and electricity market structure: A case study of OECD countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 283-291.
    9. Filippini, Massimo & Hrovatin, Nevenka & Zoric, Jelena, 2004. "Efficiency and regulation of the Slovenian electricity distribution companies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 335-344, February.
    10. Ligia Melo & Néstor Espinosa, 2005. "Ineficiencia en la distribución de energía eléctrica: una aplicación de las funciones de distancia estocástica," Revista ESPE - Ensayos sobre Política Económica, Banco de la Republica de Colombia, vol. 23(49), pages 88-132, December.
    11. Rodríguez Pardina, Martín & Rossi, Martín, 1999. "Medidas de eficiencia y regulación: una ilustración del sector de distribuidoras de gas en la Argentina," UADE Textos de Discusión 14_1999, Instituto de Economía, Universidad Argentina de la Empresa.
    12. Mehdi Farsi & Massimo Filippini, 2004. "An Empirical Analysis of Cost Efficiency in Non‐profit and Public Nursing Homes," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(3), pages 339-365, September.
    13. Darío Ezequiel Díaz, 2013. "La Distribución Eléctrica en Argentina y su Eficiencia Técnica:Una Aplicación del Análisis de Fronteras Estocásticas (SFA) Utilizando Funciones Distancia," Revista de Economía y Estadística, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Instituto de Economía y Finanzas, vol. 51(1), pages 85-118, Diciembre.
    14. Banfi, Silvia & Filippini, Massimo, 2010. "Resource rent taxation and benchmarking--A new perspective for the Swiss hydropower sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 2302-2308, May.
    15. Leopold SIMAR & Wolfgang HAERDLE, "undated". "Iterated bootstrap with applications to frontier models," Statistic und Oekonometrie 9302, Humboldt Universitaet Berlin.
    16. Klaus Gugler & Mario Liebensteiner, 2016. "Productivity Growth and the General X-factor in Austria’s Gas Distribution," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp236, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    17. Mountain, Bruce R., 2019. "Ownership, regulation, and financial disparity: The case of electricity distribution in Australia," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1-1.
    18. I. Fraser & W. Horrace, 2003. "Technical Efficiency of Australian Wool Production: Point and Confidence Interval Estimates," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 169-190, September.
    19. Jamasb, T. & Pollitt, M., 2000. "Benchmarking and regulation: international electricity experience," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 107-130, September.
    20. George E. Battese & Sohail J. Malik & Sumiter Broca, 1993. "Production Functions for Wheat Farmers in Selected Districts of Pakistan: An Application of a Stochastic Frontier Production Function with Time-varying Inefficiency Effects," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 32(3), pages 233-268.
    21. Farsi, Mehdi & Filippini, Massimo, 2009. "An analysis of cost efficiency in Swiss multi-utilities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 306-315, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    electricity; cost frontier; benchmarking; Switzerland;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:soz:wpaper:9803. 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: Severin Oswald (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/seizhch.html .

    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.