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. 2022 Feb;29(6):8503-8513. doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-15851-w. Epub 2021 Sep 7.
This paper researches the existence of economies of scale and scope in the Chilean water and sewerage industry using a translog cost function approach over the period 2010-2017. It also provides estimates of productivity growth and its determinants, technical change and scale effect. The results suggest that on average, the water industry operates under increasing economies of scale, which implies that further increases in water companies' scale of operations may be cost beneficial. Economies of scope between water and sewerage services were found for the average company, which suggests that the joint provision of these services may lead to cost savings. An average annual productivity increase of 2.5% was reported with scale effect being the major driver. Full private companies performed better than concessionary and public water companies. The results of our study can be of greater interest to the policy-makers who want to make decisions on introducing policy reforms such as mergers, unbundling of the water and sewerage supply chain, or developing incentives to improve companies' productivity.
本文使用 2010-2017 年期间的超越对数成本函数方法,研究了智利水和污水行业是否存在规模经济和范围经济。它还提供了生产力增长及其决定因素、技术变革和规模效应的估计。结果表明,平均而言,供水行业的运营处于规模经济递增状态,这意味着进一步增加水务公司的运营规模可能具有成本效益。对于平均公司来说,发现了供水和污水服务之间的范围经济,这表明联合提供这些服务可能会节省成本。报告的年平均生产力增长率为 2.5%,规模效应是主要驱动力。全资私营公司的表现优于特许经营和公有水务公司。我们的研究结果可能会引起决策者的更大兴趣,他们希望就引入政策改革做出决策,例如合并、拆分水和污水供应链,或制定激励措施来提高公司的生产力。