This paper discusses the use of benchmarking in general and its application to the drinking water sector in particular. It systematizes the various classifications of performance measurement, discusses some of the pitfalls of benchmark studies and provides some examples of benchmarking in the water sector. After a presentation of the institutional framework of the water sector in the Belgian region of Flanders (without any benchmarking experience), Wallonia (recently started a public benchmark) and the Netherlands (introduced a public benchmark in 1997), we point to their different stages in the benchmarking cycle. As these three regions are comparable apart from their different implementation of benchmarking, a non-parametric estimation of the productivity gains over time (by a Malmquist index) could be insightful. The ‘carrot’ and the ‘stick’ of benchmarking seem to offer an effective incentive to trigger performance. In addition, the Malmquist decompositions provide some indication on the ‘gaming’ of the stakeholders by the water utilities.
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Research Article|
June 15 2011
Gaming in a benchmarking environment. A non-parametric analysis of benchmarking in the water sector Available to Purchase
Kristof De Witte;
aUniversity of Leuven (KUL), Naamsestraat 69, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
bMaastricht University, Top Institute For Evidence Based Education Research, Kapoenstraat 2, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands
Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
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Rui Cunha Marques
Rui Cunha Marques
cTechnical University of Lisbon, Center for Management Studies (CEG-IST), Avenida Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
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Water Policy (2012) 14 (1): 45–66.
Article history
Received:
August 12 2010
Accepted:
April 12 2011
Citation
Kristof De Witte, Rui Cunha Marques; Gaming in a benchmarking environment. A non-parametric analysis of benchmarking in the water sector. Water Policy 1 February 2012; 14 (1): 45–66. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wp.2011.087
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