Performance Measurement and Regulation of Network Utilities

Performance Measurement and Regulation of Network Utilities

Author: Tim Coelli

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2006-01-01

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13: 9781781956519

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This book explores the important role that economic performance measurement is playing in the regulation of network utilities in many countries today. The contributors to the book - researchers from academia, regulatory agencies and consulting firms - address the use of efficiency measures in price regulation and in assessing the effects of past regulatory reforms. Industries examined include electricity supply, water supply, telecommunications and airlines, across a range of countries including the USA, UK, Norway, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand.


International Handbook on the Economics of Energy

International Handbook on the Economics of Energy

Author: Lester C. Hunt

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2011-01-01

Total Pages: 849

ISBN-13: 1849801991

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As an essential component for economic growth, energy has a significant impact on the global economy. The need to meet growing energy demand has prompted cutting-edge innovation in clean technology in an attempt to realise environmental and cost objectives, whilst ensuring the security of energy supply. This Handbook offers a comprehensive review of the economics of energy, including contributions from a distinguished array of international specialists. It provides a thorough discussion of the major research issues in this topical field of economics. Themes addressed include the theory of energy supply, demand and policy, empirical modelling of energy demand, holistic energy models, an analysis of coal, gas, electricity, oil and the markets within which they operate, and a discussion of the current key energy policy issues. The topics of pricing, transmission, regulation, security, energy efficiency, new technologies and climate change are also discussed. The International Handbook on the Economics of Energy presents a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art research making it an indispensable reference for researchers, advanced students, practitioners and policy-makers alike.


ECMT Round Tables Transport Services The Limits of (De)regulation

ECMT Round Tables Transport Services The Limits of (De)regulation

Author: European Conference of Ministers of Transport

Publisher: OECD Publishing

Published: 2006-01-03

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 9282123464

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The ECMT Round Table examines the effects and limitations of regulating transport services and examines in particular the factors that necessitate regulation, the role of transaction costs, and the cost of regulation.


Utility Benchmarking and Regulation in Developing Countries

Utility Benchmarking and Regulation in Developing Countries

Author: Silver Mugisha

Publisher: IWA Publishing

Published: 2011-05-14

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 1843392577

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Utility performance, especially in developing countries is still working toward the standard necessary to deliver best practice. Utility Benchmarking and Regulation in Developing Countries examines performance monitoring and regulation as a prominent efficiency enhancement tool and clarifies many of the unknowns regarding the design and approach surrounding the area of utility management. Principles and practices are linked in a way that is informative and accessible, highlighting the challenges facing those who are trying to improve performance in the water sector. Operational settings are complex and unpredictable in developing countries due to inadequate infrastructure planning and this book makes clear which systems work best in these situations. Utility Benchmarking and Regulation in Developing Countries discusses performance monitoring in the critical areas of utility management that achieve sustainable performance goals: Performance development planning Modes of performance monitoring Provocative approaches to incentives creation Monitoring through high incentive plans Customer relations monitoring Pro-poor oriented monitoring Careful use of partial performance indicators Proposed indicators for assessing governance incentives A case study on the National Water and Sewerage Corporation, Uganda is included in the book detailing the difficulties in discerning performance progress based on partial performance indicators. It underlines disparities in basing performance conclusions on partial performance indicators on one hand and aggregate analysis using modern benchmarking toolkits on the other. This is an excellent handbook for utility monitors or regulators whose primary duty is to oversee performance management. It is a valuable resource for decision-makers, analysts, and policy-makers and can be used in capacity-building programs (both in-house and in universities) around the world.


The Oxford Handbook of Productivity Analysis

The Oxford Handbook of Productivity Analysis

Author: Emili Grifell-Tatjé

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-08-07

Total Pages: 902

ISBN-13: 0190226730

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Productivity underpins business success and national well-being and thus it is crucial to understand the factors that influence productivity growth. This volume provides a comprehensive exploration into the significance of productivity growth for business, the economy, and for social economic progress. It examines how productivity is defined, measured and implemented. It also surveys the dispersion of productivity across time and place, focusing on the productivity dynamics that either leads to a reallocation of resources that reduces dispersion and increases aggregate productivity or, conversely, allows dispersion to persist behind barriers to productivity-enhancing reallocation. A third focus is an investigation of the drivers of, or impediments to, productivity growth, some of which are organizational in nature and under management control and others of which are institutional in nature and subject to public policy intervention. The Oxford Handbook of Productivity Analysis contains contributions of distinguished productivity experts from around the world who analyze a wide range of timely issues. These issues concern purely analytical topics surrounding the measurement of productivity in various situations, beginning with the ideal situation in which all inputs and all outputs, and their prices, are observed accurately. They also include service sectors such as education in which the services provided are hard to define, much less measure, and other sectors that generate undesirable environmental externalities that are difficult to price and complicate the very definition of productivity. The issues also involve business management topics ranging from the role of business models and benchmarking to the quality of management practices, the adoption of new technologies, and possible complementarities between the two. The relationship between productivity and business performance is also explored. At a more aggregate level the issues range from the impacts of market power, incentive regulation, international trade and global value chains on productivity, to the contribution of productivity to economic development and economic welfare.


Infrastructure Performance and Reform in Developing and Transition Economies

Infrastructure Performance and Reform in Developing and Transition Economies

Author: Lourdes Trujillo

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 28

ISBN-13:

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"Estache, Perelman, and Trujillo review about 80 studies on electricity and gas, water and sanitation, and rail and ports (with a footnote on telecommunications) in developing countries. The main policy lesson is that there is a difference in the relevance of ownership for efficiency between utilities and transport in developing countries. In transport, private operators have tended to perform better than public operators. For utilities, ownership often does not matter as much as sometimes argued. Most cross-country studies find no statistically significant difference in efficiency scores between public and private providers. As for the country-specific studies, some do find differences in performance over time but these differences tend to matter much less than a large number of other variables. Across sectors, private operators functioning in a competitive environment or regulated under price caps or hybrid regulatory regimes tend to catch up best practice faster than public operators. There is a very strong case to push regulators in developing and transition economies toward a more systematic reliance on yardstick competition in a sector in which residual monopoly powers tend to be common. This paper--a product of the Office of the Vice President, Infrastructure Network--is part of a larger effort in the network to document the state of the sector"--World Bank web site.


Competitiveness of South Asia’s Container Ports

Competitiveness of South Asia’s Container Ports

Author: Matías Herrera Dappe

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2016-06-28

Total Pages: 131

ISBN-13: 1464808937

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South Asia’s trade almost doubled in the past decade, but the share of trade in GDP is still smaller (47 percent) than in East Asia (55 percent), and South Asia’s economic competitiveness continues to lag that of other regions. Part of the problem is the region’s container ports. As a result of inefficiencies, the average cost of exporting or importing a container in the region is more than twice what it is in East Asia. Better port logistics could help increase trade, diversify exports, attract more foreign direct investment, and spur economic growth. As container traffic continues to grow and physical expansion is constrained by the limited supply of available land at most ports, the best way to improve port performance is by increasing productivity. To identify strategies for doing so, this report examines the performance of the 14 largest container ports in the region based on two sets of criteria: operational performance and economic performance. To measure operational performance, the report benchmarks total time at port, waiting time at port, and idle time as a share of total time at berth. To measure economic performance, it benchmarks productivity and efficiency using two useful techniques: Malmquist total factor productivity decomposition and data envelopment analysis. The report identifies key drivers of port performance and examines how differences in performance across ports are related to those drivers. This analysis is based on an original dataset on private sector participation, governance, and competition in South Asia’s container port sector. To highlight the potential gains from improving performance of container ports, the report uses econometric techniques to isolate the impact of efficiency improvements on maritime transport costs and trade. The results suggest that the best strategy for improving port performance in the region is a three-pronged approach that (a) encourages private sector participation through a well-developed enabling environment, including further adoption of the “landlord†? port model; (b) strengthens the governance of port authorities’ boards; and (c) promotes competition between and within ports, in part through transparent and competitive concession bidding.


Regulatory Economics and Quantitative Methods

Regulatory Economics and Quantitative Methods

Author: Omar O. Chisari

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2007-03-27

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 9781782543596

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Regulatory Economics and Quantitative Methods comprises original contributions by leading researchers working on issues relating to regulation in Latin America. They focus on regulation in infrastructure industries and attempt to show how quantitative analysis can contribute to more effective regulation. In particular, they discuss central issues relating to the measures used for benchmarking natural monopolies, incentives and contractual arrangements used in the regulatory environment and the impact of regulation and regulatory processes.