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 usefully assist local authorities and water suppliers in the task of optimising urban water management.
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Research Article|
May 11 2012
Tariffs and efficient performance by water suppliers: an empirical approach
F. Hernández-Sancho;
F. Hernández-Sancho
*
aDepartment of Applied Economics II, Faculty of Economics, Campus dels Tarongers, University of Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
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M. Molinos-Senante;
M. Molinos-Senante
aDepartment of Applied Economics II, Faculty of Economics, Campus dels Tarongers, University of Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain
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R. Sala-Garrido;
R. Sala-Garrido
bDepartment of Mathematics for Economics, Faculty of Economics, Campus dels Tarongers, University of Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain
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S. Del Saz-Salazar
S. Del Saz-Salazar
aDepartment of Applied Economics II, Faculty of Economics, Campus dels Tarongers, University of Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain
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Water Policy (2012) 14 (5): 854–864.
Article history
Received:
August 30 2011
Accepted:
February 14 2012
Citation
F. Hernández-Sancho, M. Molinos-Senante, R. Sala-Garrido, S. Del Saz-Salazar; Tariffs and efficient performance by water suppliers: an empirical approach. Water Policy 1 October 2012; 14 (5): 854–864. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wp.2012.154
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