IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/juipol/v64y2020ics0957178720300217.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Determinants of efficiency improvement in the Spanish public lighting sector

Author

Listed:
  • Benito, Bernardino
  • Guillamón, María-Dolores
  • Martínez-Córdoba, Pedro-José

Abstract

This research analyzes the factors that can improve the efficiency of public lighting. First, the annual and inter-annual efficiency levels are calculated. Second, the effects of a set of environmental variables on these efficiency levels are checked with a truncated regression model. The results show that public management is more efficient than private or mixed management. Higher tourism, stronger local governments, and more hours of sunlight appear to improve efficiency. Local governments with the highest budgetary revenues and the most urbanized area experience the greatest improvement in efficiency year after year.

Suggested Citation

  • Benito, Bernardino & Guillamón, María-Dolores & Martínez-Córdoba, Pedro-José, 2020. "Determinants of efficiency improvement in the Spanish public lighting sector," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:juipol:v:64:y:2020:i:c:s0957178720300217
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2020.101026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0957178720300217
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jup.2020.101026?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. D'Inverno, Giovanna & Carosi, Laura & Ravagli, Letizia, 2018. "Global public spending efficiency in Tuscan municipalities," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 102-113.
    2. Cinzia Daraio & Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 2018. "Central limit theorems for conditional efficiency measures and tests of the ‘separability’ condition in non‐parametric, two‐stage models of production," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 21(2), pages 170-191, June.
    3. De Borger, Bruno & Kerstens, Kristiaan, 1996. "Cost efficiency of Belgian local governments: A comparative analysis of FDH, DEA, and econometric approaches," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 145-170, April.
    4. Tsou, Chi-Ming & Huang, Deng-Yuan, 2010. "On some methods for performance ranking and correspondence analysis in the DEA context," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 203(3), pages 771-783, June.
    5. Geys, Benny & Heinemann, Friedrich & Kalb, Alexander, 2010. "Voter involvement, fiscal autonomy and public sector efficiency: Evidence from German municipalities," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 265-278, June.
    6. Daraio, Cinzia & Simar, Leopold & Wilson, Paul, 2018. "Central limit theorems for conditional efficiency measures and tests of the ‘separability’ condition in non-parametric, two-stage models of production," LIDAM Reprints ISBA 2018023, Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA).
    7. Jose M. Cordero & Francisco Pedraja-Chaparro & Elsa C. Pisaflores & Cristina Polo, 2017. "Efficiency assessment of Portuguese municipalities using a conditional nonparametric approach," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 1-24, August.
    8. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    9. Balaguer-Coll, Maria Teresa & Prior, Diego & Tortosa-Ausina, Emili, 2007. "On the determinants of local government performance: A two-stage nonparametric approach," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 425-451, February.
    10. Cuadrado-Ballesteros, Beatriz & García-Sánchez, Isabel-María & Prado-Lorenzo, José-Manuel, 2013. "Effect of modes of public services delivery on the efficiency of local governments: A two-stage approach," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 23-35.
    11. Christian Bruns & Oliver Himmler, 2011. "Newspaper Circulation and Local Government Efficiency," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 113, pages 470-492, June.
    12. Revelli, Federico & Tovmo, Per, 2007. "Revealed yardstick competition: Local government efficiency patterns in Norway," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 121-134, July.
    13. Jin-Peng Liu & Qian-Ru Yang & Lin He, 2017. "Total-Factor Energy Efficiency (TFEE) Evaluation on Thermal Power Industry with DEA, Malmquist and Multiple Regression Techniques," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-14, July.
    14. Simar, Leopold & Wilson, Paul W., 2002. "Non-parametric tests of returns to scale," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 115-132, May.
    15. Varabyova, Yauheniya & Schreyögg, Jonas, 2013. "International comparisons of the technical efficiency of the hospital sector: Panel data analysis of OECD countries using parametric and non-parametric approaches," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(1), pages 70-79.
    16. Alberto Gutierrez-Escolar & Ana Castillo-Martinez & Jose M. Gomez-Pulido & Jose-Maria Gutierrez-Martinez & Zlatko Stapic & Jose-Amelio Medina-Merodio, 2015. "A Study to Improve the Quality of Street Lighting in Spain," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-19, January.
    17. Asatryan, Zareh & De Witte, Kristof, 2015. "Direct democracy and local government efficiency," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 58-66.
    18. Lars-Erik Borge & Torberg Falch & Per Tovmo, 2008. "Public sector efficiency: the roles of political and budgetary institutions, fiscal capacity, and democratic participation," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 136(3), pages 475-495, September.
    19. John Ashworth & Benny Geys & Bruno Heyndels & Fanny Wille, 2014. "Competition in the political arena and local government performance," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(19), pages 2264-2276, July.
    20. Simar, Léopold & W. Wilson, Paul, 2019. "Central limit theorems and inference for sources of productivity change measured by nonparametric Malmquist indices," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 277(2), pages 756-769.
    21. Alexander Kalb & Benny Geys & Friedrich Heinemann, 2012. "Value for money? German local government efficiency in a comparative perspective," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(2), pages 201-218, January.
    22. Hugo Fuentes & Emili Grifell-Tatjé & Sergio Perelman, 2001. "A Parametric Distance Function Approach for Malmquist Productivity Index Estimation," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 79-94, March.
    23. Radulovic, Dusko & Skok, Srdjan & Kirincic, Vedran, 2011. "Energy efficiency public lighting management in the cities," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 1908-1915.
    24. José Lorenzo & Isabel Sánchez, 2007. "Efficiency evaluation in municipal services: an application to the street lighting service in Spain," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 149-162, June.
    25. Simar, Leopold & Wilson, Paul W., 2007. "Estimation and inference in two-stage, semi-parametric models of production processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 31-64, January.
    26. Andrés Navarro Galera & David Ortiz Rodríguez & Antonio M. López Hernández, 2008. "Identifying barriers to the application of standardized performance indicators in local government," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 241-262, March.
    27. M. Teresa Balaguer-Coll & Diego Prior, 2009. "Short- and long-term evaluation of efficiency and quality. An application to Spanish municipalities," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(23), pages 2991-3002.
    28. Victor M. Giménez & Diego Prior, 2007. "Long- and Short-Term Cost Efficiency Frontier Evaluation: Evidence from Spanish Local Governments," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 28(1), pages 121-139, March.
    29. Peter Bogetoft & Lars Otto, 2011. "Benchmarking with DEA, SFA, and R," International Series in Operations Research and Management Science, Springer, number 978-1-4419-7961-2, December.
    30. da Cruz, Nuno Ferreira & Marques, Rui Cunha, 2014. "Revisiting the determinants of local government performance," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 91-103.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Piotr Tomczuk & Marcin Chrzanowicz & Piotr Jaskowski & Marcin Budzynski, 2021. "Evaluation of Street Lighting Efficiency Using a Mobile Measurement System," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-25, June.
    2. Mirzaei, Mohammad Javad & Amirioun, Mohammad Hassan & Kazemi, Ahad & Dashti, Reza, 2020. "Optimal contracting strategies for public-lighting asset management:A case study from Iran," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    3. Salazar-Adams, Alejandro & Ramirez-Figueroa, Cecilia, 2024. "Organization, capital, and human resource factors influencing waste collection efficiency in Mexico," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    4. Pedro-José Martínez-Córdoba & Víctor Amor-Esteban & Bernardino Benito & Isabel-María García-Sánchez, 2021. "The Commitment of Spanish Local Governments to Sustainable Development Goal 11 from a Multivariate Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-15, January.
    5. Veltri, Stefania & Bruni, Maria Elena & Iazzolino, Gianpaolo & Morea, Donato & Baldissarro, Giovanni, 2023. "Do ESG factors improve utilities corporate efficiency and reduce the risk perceived by credit lending institutions? An empirical analysis," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    6. Benito, Bernardino & Martínez-Córdoba, Pedro-José & Guillamón, María-Dolores, 2021. "Measurement and determinants of efficiency in the municipal police service," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    7. Charmaine B. Distor & Odkhuu Khaltar, 2022. "What Motivates Local Governments to Be Efficient? Evidence from Philippine Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-19, August.
    8. Pedro-José Martínez-Córdoba & Nicola Raimo & Filippo Vitolla & Bernardino Benito, 2020. "Achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Efficiency in the Spanish Clean Water and Sanitation Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-13, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Benito, Bernardino & Martínez-Córdoba, Pedro-José & Guillamón, María-Dolores, 2021. "Measurement and determinants of efficiency in the municipal police service," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    2. Isabel Narbón-Perpiñá & Kristof De Witte, 2016. "Local governments’ efficiency: A systematic literature review – Part I," Working Papers 2016/20, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    3. Enrique J. Buch‐Gómez & Roberto Cabaleiro‐Casal, 2020. "Turnout, political strength, and cost efficiency in Spanish municipalities of the autonomous region of Galicia: Evidence from an alternative stochastic frontier approach," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(3), pages 533-553, June.
    4. Pedro-José Martínez-Córdoba & Nicola Raimo & Filippo Vitolla & Bernardino Benito, 2020. "Achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Efficiency in the Spanish Clean Water and Sanitation Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-13, April.
    5. da Cruz, Nuno Ferreira & Marques, Rui Cunha, 2014. "Revisiting the determinants of local government performance," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 91-103.
    6. Ifigeneia-Dimitra Pougkakioti, 2021. "Measuring The Efficiency And Productivity Change Of Municipalities With An Output Oriented Model:Empirical Evidence Across Greek Municipalities Over The Time Period 2012-2016," Romanian Journal of Regional Science, Romanian Regional Science Association, vol. 15(1), pages 98-125, JUNE.
    7. lo Storto, Corrado, 2020. "Performance evaluation of social service provision in Italian major municipalities using Network Data Envelopment Analysis," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    8. D'Inverno, Giovanna & Carosi, Laura & Ravagli, Letizia, 2018. "Global public spending efficiency in Tuscan municipalities," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 102-113.
    9. Jose M. Cordero & Francisco Pedraja-Chaparro & Elsa C. Pisaflores & Cristina Polo, 2017. "Efficiency assessment of Portuguese municipalities using a conditional nonparametric approach," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 1-24, August.
    10. Cordero, José Manuel & Pedraja-Chaparro, Francisco & Pisaflores, Elsa C. & Polo, Cristina, 2016. "Efficiency assessment of Portuguese municipalities using a conditional nonparametric approach," MPRA Paper 70674, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Maria Teresa Balaguer‐Coll & Isabel Narbón‐Perpiñá & Jesús Peiró‐Palomino & Emili Tortosa‐Ausina, 2022. "Quality of government and economic growth at the municipal level: Evidence from Spain," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 96-124, January.
    12. Isabel Narbón-Perpiñá & Maria Teresa Balaguer-Coll & Diego Prior & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2023. "Vertical transfers, political alignment, and efficiency in local government," Working Papers 2023/08, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    13. Martin Ardanaz & Stanislao Maldonado, 2016. "Natural Resource Windfalls and Efficiency of Local Government Expenditures: Evidence from Peru," Documentos de Trabajo 14578, Universidad del Rosario.
    14. Núria Bosch & Marta Espasa & Toni Mora, 2012. "Citizen Control and the Efficiency of Local Public Services," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 30(2), pages 248-266, April.
    15. Bönisch, Peter & Haug, Peter & Illy, Annette & Schreier, Lukas, 2011. "Municipality Size and Efficiency of Local Public Services: Does Size Matter?," IWH Discussion Papers 18/2011, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    16. Isabel Narbón-Perpiñá & Maria Teresa Balaguer-Coll & Marko Petrović & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2020. "Which estimator to measure local governments’ cost efficiency? The case of Spanish municipalities," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 51-82, March.
    17. Isabel Narbón-Perpiñá & Maria Teresa Balaguer-Coll & Diego Prior & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2021. "Searching for the optimal territorial structure: the case of Spanish provincial councils," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(4), pages 645-664, April.
    18. Florian Dorn, 2021. "Elections and Government Efficiency," ifo Working Paper Series 363, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    19. Titl, Vitezslav & De Witte, Kristof & Geys, Benny, 2021. "Political donations, public procurement and government efficiency," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    20. Jhorland Ayala‐García & Sandy Dall'erba, 2021. "The natural resource curse: Evidence from the Colombian municipalities," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 100(2), pages 581-602, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:juipol:v:64:y:2020:i:c:s0957178720300217. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/utilities-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.