Heterogeneity in the Cost Structure of Water and Sanitation Services : A Cross-Country Comparison of Conditions for Scale Economies

The main purpose of this article is to compare the cost structure of water utilities across a set of 14 countries with different levels of economic development. As far as is known, the cross-country perspective is novel in this literature. This article first provides new measures of returns to scale...

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Main Authors: Nauges, Celine, van den Berg, Caroline
Format: Journal Article
Language:EN
Published: 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4805
id okr-10986-4805
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-48052021-04-23T14:02:19Z Heterogeneity in the Cost Structure of Water and Sanitation Services : A Cross-Country Comparison of Conditions for Scale Economies Nauges, Celine van den Berg, Caroline Gas Utilities Pipelines Water Utilities L950 Economic Development: Agriculture Natural Resources Energy Environment Other Primary Products O130 Formal and Informal Sectors Shadow Economy Institutional Arrangements O170 Renewable Resources and Conservation: Water Q250 Air Pollution Water Pollution Noise Hazardous Waste Solid Waste Recycling Q530 The main purpose of this article is to compare the cost structure of water utilities across a set of 14 countries with different levels of economic development. As far as is known, the cross-country perspective is novel in this literature. This article first provides new measures of returns to scale in the water and sanitation sector for a set of countries, most of them from the developing world. It is then shown that the probability of a utility operating under decreasing, constant, or increasing returns to scale depends not only on its characteristics (the volume of water produced in particular), but also on the country's level of economic development (gross national income) and business environment as measured by investor protection, the cost of enforcing contracts and perceptions of corruption. 2012-03-30T07:29:50Z 2012-03-30T07:29:50Z 2010 Journal Article Oxford Development Studies 13600818 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4805 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language EN
topic Gas Utilities
Pipelines
Water Utilities L950
Economic Development: Agriculture
Natural Resources
Energy
Environment
Other Primary Products O130
Formal and Informal Sectors
Shadow Economy
Institutional Arrangements O170
Renewable Resources and Conservation: Water Q250
Air Pollution
Water Pollution
Noise
Hazardous Waste
Solid Waste
Recycling Q530
spellingShingle Gas Utilities
Pipelines
Water Utilities L950
Economic Development: Agriculture
Natural Resources
Energy
Environment
Other Primary Products O130
Formal and Informal Sectors
Shadow Economy
Institutional Arrangements O170
Renewable Resources and Conservation: Water Q250
Air Pollution
Water Pollution
Noise
Hazardous Waste
Solid Waste
Recycling Q530
Nauges, Celine
van den Berg, Caroline
Heterogeneity in the Cost Structure of Water and Sanitation Services : A Cross-Country Comparison of Conditions for Scale Economies
relation http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo
description The main purpose of this article is to compare the cost structure of water utilities across a set of 14 countries with different levels of economic development. As far as is known, the cross-country perspective is novel in this literature. This article first provides new measures of returns to scale in the water and sanitation sector for a set of countries, most of them from the developing world. It is then shown that the probability of a utility operating under decreasing, constant, or increasing returns to scale depends not only on its characteristics (the volume of water produced in particular), but also on the country's level of economic development (gross national income) and business environment as measured by investor protection, the cost of enforcing contracts and perceptions of corruption.
format Journal Article
author Nauges, Celine
van den Berg, Caroline
author_facet Nauges, Celine
van den Berg, Caroline
author_sort Nauges, Celine
title Heterogeneity in the Cost Structure of Water and Sanitation Services : A Cross-Country Comparison of Conditions for Scale Economies
title_short Heterogeneity in the Cost Structure of Water and Sanitation Services : A Cross-Country Comparison of Conditions for Scale Economies
title_full Heterogeneity in the Cost Structure of Water and Sanitation Services : A Cross-Country Comparison of Conditions for Scale Economies
title_fullStr Heterogeneity in the Cost Structure of Water and Sanitation Services : A Cross-Country Comparison of Conditions for Scale Economies
title_full_unstemmed Heterogeneity in the Cost Structure of Water and Sanitation Services : A Cross-Country Comparison of Conditions for Scale Economies
title_sort heterogeneity in the cost structure of water and sanitation services : a cross-country comparison of conditions for scale economies
publishDate 2012
url http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4805
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