Maziotis Alexandros, Sala-Garrido Ramon, Mocholi-Arce Manuel, Molinos-Senante Maria
Departamento de Ingeniería Hidráulica y Ambiental, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Avda. Vicuña Mackenna, 4860, Santiago, Chile.
Department of Business, New York College, Av. Vasilissis Amalias 38, 105 58, Athens, Greece.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2021 Jul;28(28):37818-37829. doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-13378-8. Epub 2021 Mar 15.
Assessing the productivity change of water companies provides relevant information for both water regulators and companies' managers. Past research has illustrated that different indicators and indexes have been applied although not all of them are equally reliable. Thus, this study evaluates the total factor productivity (TFP) change and its drivers employing the Luenberger-Hicks-Moorsteen productivity indicator (LHMPI) including, for the first time, quality of service variables as undesirable outputs. Moreover, unlike the previous studies, LHMPI was decomposed into three drivers; namely technical change, technical efficiency change and scale efficiency change. Our empirical application conducted on a sample of Chilean water companies over 2007-2018 embracing full private water companies (FPWCs) and concessionary water companies (CWCs). Results evidenced that, on average, TFP increased at an annual rate of 2.2%, mainly due to outputs rise. The main driver of productivity growth was scale efficiency change suggesting that adjustments in the water companies' scale of operations could lead to lower operational costs. It was also evidenced that FPWCs performed better than CWCs over the period analyzed.
评估自来水公司的生产率变化，可为水监管机构和公司管理者提供相关信息。过去的研究表明，虽然并非所有指标和指数都同样可靠，但人们已经采用了不同的指标和指数。因此，本研究使用伦伯格-希克斯-穆尔斯廷生产率指标（LHMPI）评估全要素生产率（TFP）变化及其驱动因素，首次将服务质量变量作为非期望产出纳入其中。此外，与以往研究不同的是，LHMPI被分解为三个驱动因素，即技术变革、技术效率变化和规模效率变化。我们以2007年至2018年期间的智利自来水公司样本为基础进行实证分析，样本涵盖完全私营自来水公司（FPWC）和特许经营自来水公司（CWC）。结果表明，平均而言，全要素生产率以每年2.2%的速度增长，主要原因是产出增加。生产率增长的主要驱动因素是规模效率变化，这表明自来水公司运营规模的调整可能会降低运营成本。研究还表明，在所分析的时期内，完全私营自来水公司的表现优于特许经营自来水公司。
