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Do Private Utilities Outperform Local Government-Owned Utilities? Evidence from German Retail Electricity

Author

Listed:
  • Stiel Caroline

    (German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin),Berlin, Germany)

  • Cullmann Astrid

    (German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin),Berlin, Germany)

  • Nieswand Maria

    (German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin),Berlin, Germany)

Abstract

Against the background of remunicipalisation trends in European public service sectors, this paper estimates firm-level productivity for German electricity retailers and tests whether the ownership type has a significant impact on productivity. We specify a production function for the retail sector with labour and external services as main inputs, which is estimated using a control function approach. Employing a newly constructed dataset on German utilities by the German Federal Statistical Office for the years 2003-12, we find that firm-level productivity generally increased until 2008 but not afterwards. We do not find any evidence for ownership having an impact on productivity.

Suggested Citation

  • Stiel Caroline & Cullmann Astrid & Nieswand Maria, 2018. "Do Private Utilities Outperform Local Government-Owned Utilities? Evidence from German Retail Electricity," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 19(4), pages 401-425, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:germec:v:19:y:2018:i:4:p:401-425
    DOI: 10.1111/geer.12134
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