0000000000181749
AUTHOR
S. Del Saz-salazar
Tariffs and efficient performance by water suppliers: an empirical approach
Water leaks are an environmental and sustainable issue as well as an economic issue. The objective of this paper is to analyse the efficiency of a sample of Spanish urban water systems by considering water leaks in a network as undesirable outputs. Data envelopment analysis (DEA), an analytical benchmarking methodology, is used to calculate technical and economic efficiency. We also discuss the possible relationship between efficiency and tariffs charged to users. Results show that the possibilities for reducing water leaks in networks are high, thus demonstrating that there is room for savings from an economic and environmental point of view. The assessment of efficiency performance could …
Economic and Technical Efficiency of Drinking Water Systems: An Empirical Approach for Spain
The objective of this paper is to analyze the efficiency of drinking water systems. Efficient performance, both in technical and economic terms guarantee minimum water losses in the network and reduced tariffs for the users. An analytical benchmarking methodology based on non-radial measures considering water losses as undesirable output gives us an efficiency indicator for each input used in the water supply process. These indicators, obtained by means of mathematical programming techniques, are used to rank suppliers' activity. The relation between the efficiency in the activity of the companies and the establishment of different tariffs is also analyzed. An empirical application is carry…