This paper extends two different metafrontier models proposed by O'Donnell et al. (2008) and Huang et al. (2014) to the input-oriented distance functional form which has been mentioned by O'Donnell et al. (2008, p250) but has not been done so far partly due to endogenous problem. As noted by...

The purpose of this paper is to estimate levels of efficiency of China's urban water utilities and to consider its implications for regulatory policy design. To that end, several different stochastic frontier models which assume distinct assumptions on the features of efficiency term are applied...

This paper investigates the concentration of access to safe water across income levels in Bolivia. In particular, it focuses on how privatisation has changed coverage, affordability and the concentration of access to water on the part of the poor. We compare the performance of cities in which...

In recent years we have witnessed several reforms in network industries, as privatization, regulatory changes and opening to competition in certain segments of the value chain. In sectors such as electricity and gas, this opening to competition is possible only in certain activities (i.e....

This paper provides an overview of some settled regulatory principles regarding public utilities in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and Chile. The main finding is that regulatory law has a strong economic component, which is recognised by national courts. This feature is intertwined...

Three decade ago, federal policymakers - Republicans and Democrats - embarked on a general strategy of deregulation in the electricity, gas delivery, and telecommunications industries. The strategy called for restructuring to separate production from the transmission and distribution, followed...

Independent regulatory authorities are a basic prerequisite for a successful liberalization process. However, contrary to what is expected, both graphical analyses and OLS regressions for a small sample of electricity and gas regulators operating in 16 European countries reveal a negative...

Independent regulatory authorities are a basic prerequisite for a successful liberalization process. However, contrary to what is expected, both graphical analyses and OLS regressions for a small sample of electricity and gas regulators operating in 16 European countries reveal a negative...

Maintaining rapid economic growth depends increasingly on productivity gains, particularly in the service sector. Competition has an important role to play in achieving such gains. However, Korea’s development strategy has tended to weaken competition and has left a legacy of government...

Empirical work shows that competition is important for promoting economic growth. However, in Japan the promotion of competition has long been compromised by ministerial guidance and exemptions from the competition law. Thus, the level and growth of productivity have been low in many...