showing 56 related works from this author
Ranking world tourist destinations with a composite indicator of competitiveness: To weigh or not to weigh?
2019
Abstract This paper contributes a weighted composite indicator of competitiveness for 136 world tourist destinations. To that end, Data Envelopment Analysis and Multi-Criteria-Decision-Making techniques are used with raw indicators from the 2017 edition of the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum (WEF). An outstanding feature of our approach is that weights are endogenously generated. Furthermore, the role played by several variables in tourism competitiveness is assessed using truncated regression and bootstrapping. The ranking of world tourist destinations produced by our weighted composite indicator of competitiveness is, however, fairly similar to that der…
Electoral opportunism and water pricing with incomplete transfer of control rights
2020
One of the forms of intervention in public services that lie beyond market forces is price control. While such regulation is justified by the need to achieve social goals, empirical evidence has sh...
Does the crowd matter in refereeing decisions? Evidence from Spanish soccer
2016
This paper analyses referee home bias with data from the First Division of the Spanish Football League between the 2002/03 and 2009/10 seasons. The aim is to assess the behaviour of the referee in relation to two decisions, namely free kicks awarded and players booked. The main contribution of this paper is the way in which it analyses referee bias; free kicks and bookings are not considered independent elements, instead it is presumed that the number of free kicks awarded has an impact on the cards shown. Regarding methodology, two random effects panel-data regression models are estimated. The results obtained do not confirm, at least in the period under analysis, that Spanish soccer refer…
Production risk, risk aversion and the determination of risk attitudes among Spanish rice producers
2011
Agricultural production is subject to risk and the attitudes of producers toward risk will influence input choices insofar as these affect production risk. Risk attitudes in turn may be affected by certain socioeconomic characteristics of producers. Using 2004 survey data from a cross-section of 130 Spanish rice farms, we estimate risk-aversion coefficients of farmers and investigate the influence of a series of socioeconomic variables on their risk attitudes. Our results show that farmers exhibit risk-averse behavior and that risk attitudes are related to a series of socioeconomic characteristics. In particular, the belief that the farm will continue after the producer retires is found to …
Farming Efficiency and the Survival of Valuable Agro-Ecosystems: A Case Study of Rice Farming in European Mediterranean Wetlands
2009
Beyond the conventional role of providing food, rice farming in European Mediterranean wetlands performs a valuable non-marketable function related to the provision of environmental services. Rice and biodiversity are jointly produced, so that provision of flooded-rice-fields based environmental services depends crucially on private profitability of rice farming. Recent reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and increasing access of third party countries to the domestic European market are challenging the competitiveness of European rice growers. This paper combines conventional competitiveness indicators and non-parametric efficiency analysis to ascertain the economic profitabilit…
An intertemporal approach to measuring environmental performance with directional distance functions: Greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union
2014
Abstract The impact of economic activity on the environment is a matter of growing concern for firm managers, policymakers, researchers and society as a whole. Building on previous work by Kortelainen (2008) [Dynamic environmental performance analysis: A Malmquist index approach. Ecological Economics 64, 701–715], we contribute an approach to assessing intertemporal environmental performance at the level of the management of specific pollutants, as the result of change in eco-efficiency and environmental technical change, which identify catching-up with best available environmental practices and eco-innovation, respectively. In doing so, we use Data Envelopment Analysis techniques, directio…
Accounting for operating environments in measuring water utilities’ managerial efficiency
2009
In this paper adjusted input-specific scores of technical efficiency are computed for a sample of Spanish water utilities. Performance is adjusted by netting out efficiency scores from the effect of operating environments and statistical noise. The results show that computation of adjusted efficiency scores at the input level manifestly improves the assessment of utilities’ performance in our sample of water utilities. In addition, several environmental variables capable of affecting input-specific technical management are discovered, ownership or demand seasonality among them. Finally, distributions of conventional and adjusted scores of technical performance are found to be statistically …
What makes a citrus farmer go 'organic'? Empirical evidence from Spanish citrus farming
2012
Organic farming is increasing its share of total world food output and receiving grow-ing support from policymakers concerned with agricultural sustainability issues. This paper studies the characteristics of citrus farmers in the Spanish region of Valencia that affect their probability of becoming organic farmers. A fair understanding of these characteristics may help policymakers improve the design of agricultural policies aimed at supporting organic citrus practices. As regards the methodology, a probit model is estimated with information from a sample of conventional and organic citrus farmers obtained from a survey designed for a larger research project aimed at analysing Valencian cit…
Assessing the impact of agri-environmental schemes on the eco-efficiency of rain-fed agriculture
2012
This paper analyses the impact of the Agri-environmental Extensification Scheme for the Protection of Flora and Fauna (F&F Scheme) on the eco-efficiency of a sample of dryland farms in the Spanish region of Castile and Leon. Using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the so-called program decomposition approach to efficiency measurement, we explore whether or not the production technology of the farms included in the F&F Scheme is more eco-efficient than the technology used by farms that are not included in the Scheme. The re-sults obtained confirm the foregoing hypothesis, providing evidence that environmental pres-sures could be reduced if all farms adopted the F&F Scheme technology. Furth…
Performance in the treatment of municipal waste: Are European Union member states so different?
2019
Abstract Efficient management and treatment of municipal waste is essential for achieving green growth. Recent studies have revealed convergence in European Union (EU) member states' performance in municipal waste treatment, particularly since the transposition of the 2008 European Waste Framework Directive into national laws. However, there are still notable differences between countries. In this paper, we calculate a composite indicator of performance in municipal waste treatment at the country-level. We also present an in-depth examination of differences in performance across EU member states. Our results show that the best performers—mainly high income Northern and Central European coun…
Social progress around the world: trends and convergence
2022
Abstract This paper assesses social progress in 139 countries over the period 1995–2017 following the framework proposed by the Social Progress Imperative; a notable contribution is a composite index allowing for comparisons across countries and over time. The index considers 45 raw indicators covering three fundamental pillars of social progress: basic human needs, foundations of well-being, and opportunities. The results point to a marked improvement in social progress all over the world from the mid-1990s, although they also depict a highly polarized world. Cross-country convergence patterns are also investigated, revealing a reduction in the differences in social progress, largely drive…
La matriz de análisis de políticas con datos eficientes: evaluación de la rentabilidad del cultivo del arroz
2008
This paper combines policy analysis matrix and data envelopment analysis techniques to model the analysis of profitability from farming. Policy analysis matrices are computed for a sample of rice growers located in the wetland of the Albufera (Eastern Spain) under observed conventional and profit-efficient farming conditions. While conventional analysis points to a lack of profitability, farmers are shown to make positive profits at private and social prices when data reflecting efficiency adjustments are used in the analysis. The main conclusion is that the usefulness of the policy analysis matrix might be substantially enhanced by simulating profitability after efficiency-improving manage…
Does service quality matter in measuring the performance of water utilities?
2008
Abstract Quality is a dimension of water services that has been repeatedly omitted in the study of performance of water utilities. In this paper, Data Envelopment Analysis techniques are used to compute both conventional quantity-based and quality-adjusted scores of technical efficiency for a sample of Spanish water utilities. The key assumptions are that a lack of quality (bad quality) can be regarded as a bad output and the existence of a trade-off between quantity and quality. Our main results indicate that quality matters in measuring technical efficiency, the difference between conventional and quality-adjusted evaluations representing the opportunity cost of maintaining quality. Avera…
Directional distance functions and environmental regulation
2005
Abstract In this paper we use directional technology distance functions to evaluate the impact of environmental regulations on firms’ performance. Following Fare et al. [Fare, R., Grosskopf, S., Lovell, C.A.K., Pasurka, C., 1989. Multilateral productivity comparisons when some outputs are undesirable: a nonparametric approach. The Review of Economics and Statistics 71, 90–98.], we construct an index that measures opportunity costs for individual firms arising from regulations that prevent free disposal of wastes. The methodology is applied to a sample of Spanish producers of ceramic pavements. We assume that firms maximise desirable output simultaneously reducing inputs, with no change in t…
Does market concentration affect prices in the urban water industry?
2015
This paper analyzes the relationship between market concentration in the private segment of the water industry and water prices with a sample of municipalities located in the Southern Spanish region of Andalusia. In doing so, several Heckman sample selection models are estimated with the main finding being that market concentration increases the price of water for residential use charged by private companies. The main policy recommendation is that urban water service privatization must be accompanied by the appropriate regulatory and institutional frameworks to promote competition among businesses and monitor water pricing.
Ranking World Tourism Competitiveness: A Comparison of Two Composite Indicators
2021
Assessing travel and tourism competitiveness (T&TC) is becoming an issue of paramount importance for stakeholders, mainly policymakers and practitioners. The availability of new databases such as the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) has boosted this interest. This chapter contributes to the current literature in this field with an assessment of the T&TC of 136 world tourist destinations. In doing so, two well-known approaches are employed: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with endogenous common weights, and the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solutions (TOPSIS). World tourist destinations are ranked using these approaches,…
Agricultural externalities and environmental regulation: evaluating good practice in citrus production
2006
Economic activity takes place in a scenario characterized by an increasing number of environmental regulations aimed at bringing under control the emission of contaminating wastes. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of transforming a code of good practice in nitrogen fertilization on Spanish citrus fruit farms into an environmental regulation of compulsory fulfilment. Using data envelopment techniques, we calculate unrestricted and environmentally regulated short-run maximum profits. Both profit values are then used to compute an index of the cost of regulation. Our results suggest that the cost of shifting from a merely recommended practice to a binding rule is low. On average, the loss…
Environmental externalities and efficiency measurement.
2009
Production of desirable outputs often produces by-products that have harmful effects on the environment. This paper investigates technologies where the biggest good output producer is not the greatest polluter, i.e. technologies located on the downward-sloping segment of the frontier depicted in Fare et al. (1989). Directional distance functions and Data Envelopment Analysis techniques are used to define an algorithm that allows them to be identified empirically. Furthermore, we show that in such situations producers can contribute social goods, i.e. reducing polluting wastes, without limiting their capacity to maximise production of marketable output. Finally, we illustrate our methodology…
Well‐being in European regions: Does government quality matter?
2020
This paper constructs a composite indicator of well‐being for 168 European regions with data from 10 well‐being domains. Regions are then ranked according to their respective levels of well‐being. The ranking reveals notable differences across European regions, which follow a marked spatial pattern. As a second contribution, the paper analyses the impact of the quality of government on well‐being. Results show a positive association robust to several specifications and scenarios. Moreover, the effects of quality of government on individual well‐being dimensions are identified, finding positive links with education, jobs, income, safety civic engagement, access to services, housing and commu…
Can we be satisfied with our football team? Evidence from spanish professional football.
2009
This article assesses the sporting performance of Spanish professional football teams at competition level, namely, League, King’s Cup, and European competitions (Champions League and Union of European Football Associations [UEFA] Cup). Then, the gap between the result obtained by a team at the end of a season and that expected according to its potential is used as a proxy of the degree of satisfaction that fans should feel: the narrower the gap the greater the level of satisfaction. Regarding methodology, Data Envelopment Analysis techniques and directional distance functions are used. Results reveal that most teams perform rather differently across competitions, the lower average performa…
Assessing environmental performance in the European Union: Eco-innovation versus catching-up
2017
Abstract This paper assesses environmental performance in the European Union (EU) using Luenberger productivity indicators, directional distance functions and Data Envelopment Analysis techniques. It considers four indicators of the pressures exerted by economic activity on the environment: global warming, tropospheric ozone formation, acidification and particulate formation. The change in environmental performance from the early 2000s onwards is decomposed at the levels of country and environmental pressure, and as the result of eco-innovations and catching-up with the best available environmental technologies; furthermore, we distinguish between the periods of economic growth (2001–07) an…
Environmental productivity in the European Union: A global Luenberger-metafrontier approach
2019
This paper studies environmental productivity in the European Union-28 (EU-28) by extending the methodology proposed by Oh (2010) to an additive Luenberger-metafrontier framework. The main advantage of this approach is that it allows the analyst to account for cross-country heterogeneity. Using data on GDP, environmental pressures and inputs, the change in environmental productivity and its determinants between the years 2001 and 2016 is assessed in several scenarios; heterogeneity is accounted for by differentiating between the members of the former European Union-15 (EU-15) and the new members that joined the EU-28 from the 2000s onwards. Our results show an improvement in environmental p…
Assessing performance in the management of the urban water cycle
2011
This paper proposes the use of directional distance functions and Data Envelopment Analysis techniques to assess technical efficiency in the provision of the different stages of the urban water cycle in Andalusia, a Southern European region. Evaluating performance in the management of specific stages of the urban water cycle provides utility managers and regulating authorities with relevant information that may not be detected by more conventional approaches based on assessing performance at utility level. We find that Andalusian water and sewage utilities could achieve significant increases in the volume of water delivered without diminishing the output of their other services and using th…
Assessing farming eco-efficiency: a Data Envelopment Analysis approach.
2010
This paper assesses farming eco-efficiency using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) techniques. Eco-efficiency scores at both farm and environmental pressure-specific levels are computed for a sample of Spanish farmers operating in the rain-fed agricultural system of Campos County. The determinants of eco-efficiency are then studied using truncated regression and bootstrapping techniques. We contribute to previous literature in this field of research by including information on slacks in the assessment of the potential environmental pressure reductions in a DEA framework. Our results reveal that farmers are quite eco-inefficient, with very few differences emerging among specific environmental …
DO LABOUR SOCIETIES PERFORM DIFFERENTLY TO COOPERATIVES? EVIDENCE FROM THE SPANISH BUILDING INDUSTRY
2012
: Labour Societies and Cooperatives are both Social Economy enterprises, but with noticeable differences, some of which are imposed by legislation in Spain. The aim of this paper is to study whether such differences affect their management capacity and, in particular, efficiency. In doing so, Data Envelopment Analysis techniques and the metafrontier approach proposed by O’Donnell et al. (2008) are used on a sample of Spanish Labour Societies and Cooperatives belonging to the building industry. Scores of technical efficiency and metafrontier ratios are computed at firm level and, as a novel contribution to existing literature in this field of research, at input-specific level. The main findi…
Outsourcing and efficiency: the case of Spanish citrus farming
2006
Outsourcing in agriculture has traditionally been seen as a managerial strategy of smaller farms to achieve higher levels of efficiency. In this article, we provide empirical evidence supporting the existence of a positive relationship between outsourcing and efficiency in Spanish citrus farming. Outsourcing is measured by the proportion of outsourced labor and capital in farms' total use of these production factors, i.e., the higher the proportion of outsourced inputs, the higher the degree of outsourcing. Making use of data envelopment analysis techniques, we compute input-specific reductions required to achieve technical efficiency at the farm level. Our results show that attainment of t…
Are the determinants of CO2 emissions converging among OECD countries?
2013
This paper studies convergence in CO2emission intensity (CO2 emissions over GDP) among OECD countries over the period 1960-2008 based on its determinants, namely, energy intensity (energy consumption over GDP) and the so-called carbonisation index (CO2 emissions over energy consumption). We apply the Phillips and Sul (2007) methodology, which tests for the existence of convergence clubs. Our results highlight that differences in emission intensity convergence are more determined by differences in convergence of the carbonisation index rather than by differences in the dynamic convergence of energy intensity.
ARE LAC COOPERATIVE AND COMMERCIAL BANKS SO DIFFERENT IN THEIR MANAGEMENT OF NON‐PERFORMING LOANS?
2018
This paper assesses technical efficiency in the management of non‐performing loans (NPLs) in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) banking industry. To that end, Data Envelopment Analysis techniques are employed with data from the years 2013 to 2016 on a sample of 307 LAC cooperative and commercial banks. Our main contribution to existing literature is that differences of efficiency between cooperative banks and commercial banks are assessed as the result of the different capacities of their managers – managerial efficiency – and the so‐called programme efficiency, which represents differences in the technology used by these two categories of entities. Our principal result suggests that th…
Introduction to Reforming water tariffs: Experiences and reforms
2015
Performance and convergence in municipal waste treatment in the European Union.
2019
This paper assesses performance and convergence in the treatment of municipal waste by the members of the European Union-27 (EU-27) during the period 1995-2016. First, a composite indicator of performance -including landfill, incineration, recycling, and composting and digestion as treatment operations- is computed with Data Envelopment Analysis and Multi-Criteria-Decision-Making techniques at country and year levels. Then, convergence is assessed using the techniques proposed by Phillips and Sul (2007, 2009) and, more recently, by Kong et al. (2017). The best performers are Central and Northern European countries such as Denmark, Austria and Germany, whereas the worst are some Eastern Euro…
Ranking farms with a composite indicator of sustainability
2011
The assessment of sustainability at farm level has been growing in popularity over the last few years. This article contributes to this line of research by building up composite indicators for different facets—social, economic, environmental, and global—of farm sustainability using a methodological approach that combines data envelopment analysis (DEA) and multicriteria decision making (MCDM) methods, and assigns common weights to each individual sustainability indicator. This approach is applied to a database of 163 farms located in the Campos County, a region belonging to the dry lands of the Spanish Northern Plateau, using 12 individual indicators of sustainability. Our findings show tha…
Eco-efficiency assessment of olive farms in Andalusia
2012
Abstract Olive farming represents an important source of income and employment in the rural areas of Andalusia (Spain), which is the most important olive oil-producing region in the world. Unfortunately, it also exerts significant environmental pressures with regard to soil erosion, use of polluting inputs, excessive water consumption and biodiversity reduction. This paper uses Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) techniques and pressure distance functions to contribute a farm-level assessment of the eco-efficiency of a sample of 292 Andalusian olive farmers. We distinguish between managerial eco-efficiency and program eco-efficiency, the latter being associated to the different natural conditio…
Is the European Social Progress Index robust? Implications for the design of European Union regional Cohesion Policy
2023
The European Social Progress Index (EU-SPI) is a composite index launched by the European Commission in 2016 to assess social progress. It is constructed using non-economic indicators, and is intended to serve as a tool for European regional policies. This paper shows that the 2020 release of the index is robust to multiple alternative designs, and thus suitable for policymaking. The EU-SPI and gross domestic product per capita (GDPpc) are positively correlated, although they are in no way substitutes. These findings suggest that the EU-SPI could complement the GDPpc as an instrument to determine eligibility and achieve a more citizen-oriented allocation of European Cohesion Policy funds.
Irrigated Agriculture in Spain: Diagnosis and Prescriptions for Improved Governance
2012
The objective of this paper is to diagnose the current state of irrigation in Spain in order to support government decision makers to improve the design and application of their plans for action. The analysis implemented shows that this sector faces two main challenges: the decrease in the support given by the Common Agricultural Policy (lower subsidies/incomes) and the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive (stricter environmental requirements). While the survival of extensive irrigated agriculture in inland regions depends on farmers producing different crops and modernizing production techniques, littoral regions must respond with technological innovation, especially te…
The calculation of shadow prices for industrial wastes using distance functions: An analysis for Spanish ceramic pavements firms
2001
Abstract This paper deals with the calculation of shadow prices for two industrial wastes generated on their production processes by 18 firms belonging to the Spanish ceramic pavements industry. These prices are then used to calculate an extended productivity index which takes into consideration wastes going with the production of marketable goods. We follow the methodological approach first proposed by Fare et al. (The Review of Economics and Statistics 75 (1993)). A negative correlation is found between absolute shadow prices and wastes production intensity, reflecting a greater marginal cost of eliminating wastes for those firms using less contaminant production processes. Differences be…
Legislative reforms and market dynamics in the provision of urban water service by private contract operators in Spain
2022
Abstract This paper studies the dynamics of concentration in the Spanish market for the provision of urban water service by private contract operators in the 2000–2020 period. The market is highly concentrated. Concentration increased until 2007, at which point it started to decline when Law 30/2007 on Public Sector Contracts and Organic Law 8/2007 on Political Party Financing were passed; before rising again from 2016 onwards. This latter trend results from strategic behaviour by the two leading operators, acquiring smaller companies with a notable presence in some regional markets. Further legislative reforms aimed at safeguarding space for competition are thus proposed.
Performance and risk in the Brazilian banking industry
2021
Andres J. Picazo-Tadeo aknowledges the financial support from the Generalitat Valenciana (project PROMETEO 2018/102).
What makes environmental performance differ between firms? Empirical evidence from the Spanish tile industry
2007
Environmental performance is a matter of major concern both for policy makers and for firm managers. In this paper we interpret firms' environmental performance as their ability to reduce polluting wastes while maintaining observed levels of inputs and desirable outputs. Making use of data envelopment analysis techniques, we compute waste-specific environmental efficiency measures for a sample of ceramic-tile producers located in the eastern Spanish region of Valencia. Our results show that there exists substantial room for improving environmental performance, which would have highly beneficial consequences for the local environment. In a second stage of analysis, we find that affiliation …
Is the price of water for residential use related to provider ownership? Empirical evidence from Spain
2013
Abstract This paper assesses the relationship between provider ownership and the price of water for residential use set by 386 Southern Spanish municipalities. Our main contribution to the previous literature is that we go much further than merely distinguishing between private and public ownership. First, we find that prices are lower when the urban water service is directly provided by town councils. Second, when water services are contracted out to external companies, the prices set by public utilities are higher than the prices of private utilities due to larger fixed quotas. Finally, water prices are also higher when the provision of the service has been privatised to an institutionali…
Analysing farming systems with Data Envelopment Analysis: citrus farming in Spain
2004
Abstract Farming systems in the Mediterranean agricultural areas of Spain are frequently characterised by the small size of the production units and a widespread strategy of externalisation of many growing tasks which could be seen as a way of allowing farms to remain competitive. In this paper, we suggest Data Envelopment Analysis as an appropriate analytical tool to explore the possibilities of short-term viability of individual farms, after eliminating current inefficient practices. From a sample of Spanish citrus farms, we identify the efficient production units that determine the technological or best practice frontier, and we compare their characteristics with those of the average far…
Assessing eco-efficiency with directional distance functions
2012
Abstract Eco-efficiency is a matter of concern at present that is receiving increasing attention in political, academic and business circles. Broadly speaking, this concept refers to the ability to create more goods and services with less impact on the environment and less consumption of natural resources, thus involving both economic and also ecological issues. In this paper we propose the use of directional distance functions and Data Envelopment Analysis techniques to assess eco-efficiency. More specifically, we show how these functions can be used to compute a wide range of indicators representing different objectives regarding economic and ecological performance. This methodological ap…
Assessing environmental performance trends in the transport industry: Eco-innovation or catching-up?
2015
Abstract This paper analyses the change in environmental performance that took place in the transport industry of 38 countries between the years 1995 and 2009. Data Envelopment Analysis techniques and directional distance functions are employed to compute Luenberger productivity indicators for the change in environmental performance and its determinants, namely, environmental technical change resulting from eco-innovation and catching-up with best available environmental technologies. Eight air pollutants account for the environmental contaminants from transport activities, and these are aggregated into three main categories of environmental pressures, namely, global warming, tropospheric o…
WHY DO LOCAL GOVERNMENTS PRIVATIZE THE PROVISION OF WATER SERVICES? EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM SPAIN
2010
Why do some local governments privatize water services, while others opt for public management? Economic literature has been unable to demonstrate that private management is more efficient than public management, so there must be other reasons that lead governments to privatize the service. But what are they? This paper presents the results of a study that analyses the factors behind the privatization of water services with data from 741 municipalities located in the South of Spain over a period dating from 1985 to 2006. A discrete choice model analyses the influence of each factor on the likelihood of privatization. One of the novelties of this paper is that we take the value of the explan…
The ‘social choice’ of privatising urban water services: A case study of Madrid in Spain
2015
Abstract In countries where privatisation is permitted by law, policymakers usually provide different reasons of general interest to allow private companies to manage water services. However, these decisions often provoke intense political debate and are at times opposed by citizens. We illustrate how the Analytic Hierarchy Process can be used to introduce a political analysis regarding the management of water services. We analyse the recent decision taken by the Regional Government of Madrid (Spain) to part-privatise the management of water services. Our main result suggests that policymakers should reconsider the importance of citizen participation in the management of water services.
Contract Renewal in Urban Water Services, Incumbent Advantage, and Market Concentration
2020
Contract renewal with the incumbent is common practice in the contracting-out of public services. It could, however, affect competition by reinforcing trends towards market concentration. This article contributes empirical evidence on the determinants of the result of public tenders for the renewal of private provision of the urban water service. A dataset with information on 215 public tenders held in Spain between 2008 and 2019 is employed. The methodology is grounded in logistic regression techniques. The findings indicate that incumbents' size does not play a role in the proba-bility of alternating between service providers. Furthermore, competition−proxied by the number of bidders−and …
The dynamics of privatization and regulation of water services: a comparative study of two Spanish regions
2013
As in other economic activities, privatization of water delivery has not resulted in the retreat of the public sector, but rather a change in the way in which the government intervenes in the water industry. This paper illustrates this situation by comparing urban water services in two Spanish regions, Andalusia and Catalonia. Water service delivery is structured very differently in these two regions with respect to private involvement, the degree of market concentration and, as a result, problems in competition. The characteristics of the two regions' respective regulatory agencies reflect the different paths taken to privatization: in Catalonia private firms have much more tradition and o…
Opportunity Costs of Ensuring Sustainability in Urban Water Services
2011
This paper assesses technical performance in the water industry in the Southern European region of Andalusia, while accounting for sustainability in the management of water. This allows the opportunity cost of producing sustainability to be evaluated. Given the low cost of raw water in Spain in relation to the estimated opportunity cost of saving this natural resource, wasting water becomes a profitable strategy for utility managers from a private perspective. However, this managerial strategy has a huge social cost in an area of Europe where the sustainable management of water is a pressing need. The conclusion is that environmental policy aimed at discouraging this wasteful behaviour is u…
Measuring environmental performance in the treatment of municipal solid waste: The case of the European Union-28
2021
Abstract This paper proposes a measure of environmental performance in the treatment of municipal solid waste, which is defined as a ratio between a composite indicator of waste treated through environmentally desirable operations –recycling and recovery in our case study– and a composite indicator of waste treated through undesirable operations –landfill and incineration. Moreover, it contributes both overall and treatment-specific indicators of performance. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) techniques are used to compute the environmental performance indicators and they are illustrated with an empirical assessment of the environmental performance of the European Union-28 (EU-28) members in …
Assessing the performance of the Latin American and Caribbean banking industry: Are domestic and foreign banks so different?
2015
AbstractThis paper studies the relative performance of domestic and foreign banks in the Latin American and Caribbean banking industry. Data Envelopment Analysis is used to compute technical efficiency scores for the years 2001 and 2013. Our main contribution is twofold. On the one hand, we assess performance at the level of the management of specific production factors. On the other hand, we distinguish program efficiency from managerial efficiency, which allows us to evaluate whether the differences in technical efficiency between national and foreign banks are due to the use of different technologies (program efficiency) or, conversely, differences in the managerial capacities of manager…
Is the environmental performance of industrialized countries converging? A ‘SURE’ approach to testing for convergence
2008
In this paper, we test for convergence in the environmental performance of a sample of OECD countries, with data ranging from 1971 to 2002. First, we use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to compute two environmental performance indicators (EPIs) in the production theory framework. Second, we propose the use of a sequential multivariate approach to test for convergence in environmental performance. These tests allow us to reconcile the time series literature with the cross-sectional dimension, which is basic when testing for convergence in regional blocs. The SURE technique is used, which allows for the existence of correlations across the series without imposing a common speed of mean revers…
Measuring well-being in Colombian departments. The role of geography and demography
2021
This paper provides a composite indicator of well-being for the 33 Colombian departments in the year 2016. The indicator is built by adapting the well-known OECD Better Life Index to the regional level, and includes the dimensions of income, health, education, safety, housing, environment, labour market, and civic engagement and governance. As to the methodology, Data Envelopment Analysis and Multi-Criteria Decision-Making techniques are employed, an approach which enables a comparison of well-being across departments and the construction of rankings. The results yield several take-away messages. First, there are substantial disparities in well-being across Colombian departments. Second, de…
Farmers' costs of environmental regulation: Reducing the consumption of nitrogen in citrus farming
2007
Abstract Environmental externalities in agriculture, and the choice of suitable instruments to integrate environmental concerns into agricultural policies, are a matter of interest for the Common Agricultural Policy. In this paper, we use Data Envelopment Analysis techniques to assess the impact on farms' performance of two environmentally-friendly regulations aimed at abating consumption of inorganic nitrogen in Spanish citrus farming: levies on purchased nitrogen and nitrogen use permits for farms. By comparing farms' short-run maximum profits under both unregulated and regulated scenarios a regulation cost index is computed. Our results show that nitrogen overuse is mostly a matter of ma…
The role of environmental factors in water utilities' technical efficiency. Empirical evidence from Spanish companies.
2009
This article computes input-specific scores of technical efficiency for a sample of water utilities located in the southern Spanish region of Andalusia. In addition, differences in efficiency between different operating environments are investigated. Concerning the debate about ownership and efficiency, we find that privately owned companies outperform public utilities in their management of labour. Furthermore, technical efficiency is found to be greater among firms located in highly populated areas and for utilities providing water services to tourist municipalities. Finally, no empirical evidence supporting the greater technical efficiency of consortia of water utilities, a managerial st…
Well-being and the Great Recession in Spain
2018
This is an original manuscript / preprint of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Applied Economics Letters on 2019, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2018.1545076 This letter assesses the impact of the Great Recession on well-being in Spanish provinces using two alternative composite indicators of objective well-being that include somewhat different dimensions. Whereas the crisis notably eroded economic well-being, its impact on overall well-being – which in addition to economic dimensions also includes non-economic ones – was imperceptible. This result points to the need to carefully define and assess well-being in empirical analyses.
Public choice of urban water service management: a multi-criteria approach
2013
Local policy makers in developed countries have to make decisions in increasingly complex scenarios. Consequently, they should use all the tools available when deciding which management option is the most suitable for urban water service, given how important that service is and the variety of criteria involved in making such a decision. This article employs ‘analytic hierarchy process’ techniques to perform an ex post analysis of the decision to transfer the management of the urban water service in Granada (in southern Spain) to a public-private partnership. The main conclusion is that the decision was rational, in that it was the best possible alternative considering the hierarchy of prefe…
Does a red shirt improve sporting performance? Evidence from Spanish football
2011
Recent research has linked red shirts to sporting success. In this article, we analyse the relationship between the colour red and sporting performance in the Spanish Professional Football League. Our foremost conclusion is that once the effect of the different endowments of resources and the ability of managers have been discounted, teams with red shirts do not show greater performance than teams wearing shirts of other colours.