IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/juipol/v70y2021ics0957178721000278.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing the marginal cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the English and Welsh water and sewerage industry: A parametric approach

Author

Listed:
  • Sala-Garrido, Ramon
  • Mocholi-Arce, Manuel
  • Molinos-Senante, Maria
  • Maziotis, Alexandros

Abstract

Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions involves effort from different sectors of the economy, including the water and sewerage industry. This study estimates the marginal cost of curtailing GHG emissions in the water and sewerage industry using stochastic frontier analysis techniques for a sample of ten English and Welsh water and sewerage companies over the 2010–2019 period. Results illustrated that the average marginal cost of reducing GHG emissions was 0.181 £/Kg CO2 equivalent. The marginal cost estimated notably differs across companies and over time. Findings further illustrate the impact of water companies' operating characteristics on the marginal cost of reducing carbon emissions.

Suggested Citation

  • Sala-Garrido, Ramon & Mocholi-Arce, Manuel & Molinos-Senante, Maria & Maziotis, Alexandros, 2021. "Assessing the marginal cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the English and Welsh water and sewerage industry: A parametric approach," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:juipol:v:70:y:2021:i:c:s0957178721000278
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2021.101193
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0957178721000278
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jup.2021.101193?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. Humberto Brea-Solis & Sergio Perelman & David Saal, 2017. "Regulatory incentives to water losses reduction: the case of England and Wales," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 259-276, June.
    2. Bottasso, Anna & Conti, Maurizio, 2009. "Scale economies, technology and technical change in the water industry: Evidence from the English water only sector," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 138-147, March.
    3. Jamasb, Tooraj & Orea, Luis & Pollitt, Michael, 2012. "Estimating the marginal cost of quality improvements: The case of the UK electricity distribution companies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 1498-1506.
    4. Matsushita, Kyohei & Yamane, Fumihiro, 2012. "Pollution from the electric power sector in Japan and efficient pollution reduction," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 1124-1130.
    5. Ananda, Jayanath & Hampf, Benjamin, 2015. "Measuring environmentally sensitive productivity growth: An application to the urban water sector," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 211-219.
    6. Carlos Pestana Barros & Nicolas Peypoch & Scott Tainsky, 2014. "Cost efficiency of French soccer league teams," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(8), pages 781-789, March.
    7. Timothy J. Coelli & D.S. Prasada Rao & Christopher J. O’Donnell & George E. Battese, 2005. "An Introduction to Efficiency and Productivity Analysis," Springer Books, Springer, edition 0, number 978-0-387-25895-9, October.
    8. Bowen Xiao & Dongxiao Niu & Han Wu & Haichao Wang, 2017. "Marginal Abatement Cost of CO 2 in China Based on Directional Distance Function: An Industry Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-19, January.
    9. Wang, Ke & Yang, Kexin & Wei, Yi-Ming & Zhang, Chi, 2018. "Shadow prices of direct and overall carbon emissions in China’s construction industry: A parametric directional distance function-based sensitive estimation," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 180-193.
    10. Hampf, Benjamin & Ananda, Jayanath, 2015. "Measuring environmentally sensitive productivity growth: An application to the urban water sector," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 77008, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    11. María Molinos-Senante & Alexandros Maziotis, 2020. "Drivers of productivity change in water companies: an empirical approach for England and Wales," International Journal of Water Resources Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(6), pages 972-991, November.
    12. Zhou, X. & Fan, L.W. & Zhou, P., 2015. "Marginal CO2 abatement costs: Findings from alternative shadow price estimates for Shanghai industrial sectors," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 109-117.
    13. Guerrini, Andrea & Romano, Giulia & Leardini, Chiara, 2018. "Economies of scale and density in the Italian water industry: A stochastic frontier approach," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 103-111.
    14. Ke Wang & Kexin Yang & Yi-Ming Wei & Chi Zhang, 2018. "Shadow prices of direct and overall carbon emissions in China¡¯s construction industry: a parametric directional distance function-based sensitive estimation," CEEP-BIT Working Papers 120, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEP), Beijing Institute of Technology.
    15. Wang, Ke & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2014. "China’s regional industrial energy efficiency and carbon emissions abatement costs," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 617-631.
    16. Yue-Jun Zhang & Zhao Liu & Huan Zhang & Tai-De Tan, 2014. "The impact of economic growth, industrial structure and urbanization on carbon emission intensity in China," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 73(2), pages 579-595, September.
    17. Bottasso, Anna & Conti, Maurizio & Piacenz, Massimiliano & Vannoni, Davide, 2011. "The appropriateness of the poolability assumption for multiproduct technologies: Evidence from the English water and sewerage utilities," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(1), pages 112-117, March.
    18. Du, Limin & Hanley, Aoife & Wei, Chu, 2015. "Estimating the Marginal Abatement Cost Curve of CO2 Emissions in China: Provincial Panel Data Analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 217-229.
    19. David Saal & David Parker & Tom Weyman-Jones, 2007. "Determining the contribution of technical change, efficiency change and scale change to productivity growth in the privatized English and Welsh water and sewerage industry: 1985–2000," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 127-139, October.
    20. Coelli, Tim J. & Gautier, Axel & Perelman, Sergio & Saplacan-Pop, Roxana, 2013. "Estimating the cost of improving quality in electricity distribution: A parametric distance function approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 287-297.
    21. Chen, Shiyi, 2013. "What is the potential impact of a taxation system reform on carbon abatement and industrial growth in China?," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 369-386.
    22. Barros, Carlos Pestana, 2011. "Cost efficiency of African airports using a finite mixture model," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 807-813, November.
    23. Anna Bottasso & Maurizio Conti, 2009. "Price cap regulation and the ratchet effect: a generalized index approach," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 32(3), pages 191-201, December.
    24. Molinos-Senante, María & Guzmán, Catalina, 2018. "Reducing CO2 emissions from drinking water treatment plants: A shadow price approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 623-631.
    25. Wei, Chu & Löschel, Andreas & Liu, Bing, 2013. "An empirical analysis of the CO2 shadow price in Chinese thermal power enterprises," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 22-31.
    26. Tim Coelli & Denis Lawrence (ed.), 2006. "Performance Measurement and Regulation of Network Utilities," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3801.
    27. Molinos-Senante, María & Hanley, Nick & Sala-Garrido, Ramón, 2015. "Measuring the CO2 shadow price for wastewater treatment: A directional distance function approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 241-249.
    28. Meeusen, Wim & van den Broeck, Julien, 1977. "Efficiency Estimation from Cobb-Douglas Production Functions with Composed Error," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 18(2), pages 435-444, June.
    29. Aigner, Dennis & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1977. "Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 21-37, July.
    30. Greene, William, 2005. "Reconsidering heterogeneity in panel data estimators of the stochastic frontier model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 126(2), pages 269-303, June.
    31. Kejia Yang & Yalin Lei, 2017. "The carbon dioxide marginal abatement cost calculation of Chinese provinces based on stochastic frontier analysis," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 85(1), pages 505-521, January.
    32. Maziotis, Alexandros & Saal, David S. & Thanassoulis, Emmanuel & Molinos-Senante, María, 2016. "Price-cap regulation in the English and Welsh water industry: A proposal for measuring productivity performance," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 22-30.
    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. Ramón Sala-Garrido & Manuel Mocholí-Arce & María Molinos-Senante & Alexandros Maziotis, 2021. "Comparing Operational, Environmental and Eco-Efficiency of Water Companies in England and Wales," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-14, June.

    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. Maziotis, Alexandros & Molinos-Senante, Maria, 2022. "The impact of model specification and environmental variables on measuring the overall technical efficiency of water and sewerage services: Evidence from Chile," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 191-198.
    2. Kejia Yang & Yalin Lei, 2017. "The carbon dioxide marginal abatement cost calculation of Chinese provinces based on stochastic frontier analysis," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 85(1), pages 505-521, January.
    3. Ramón Sala-Garrido & Manuel Mocholí-Arce & María Molinos-Senante & Alexandros Maziotis, 2021. "Comparing Operational, Environmental and Eco-Efficiency of Water Companies in England and Wales," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-14, June.
    4. Ramon Sala-Garrido & Manuel Mocholi-Arce & Maria Molinos-Senante & Michail Smyrnakis & Alexandros Maziotis, 2021. "Eco-Efficiency of the English and Welsh Water Companies: A Cross Performance Assessment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-17, March.
    5. Mocholi-Arce, Manuel & Sala-Garrido, Ramon & Molinos-Senante, Maria & Maziotis, Alexandros, 2021. "Water company productivity change: A disaggregated approach accounting for changes in inputs and outputs," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    6. Ke Wang & Linan Che & Chunbo Ma & Yi-Ming Wei, 2017. "The Shadow Price of CO2 Emissions in China's Iron and Steel Industry," CEEP-BIT Working Papers 105, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEP), Beijing Institute of Technology.
    7. Wei, Xiao & Zhang, Ning, 2020. "The shadow prices of CO2 and SO2 for Chinese Coal-fired Power Plants: A partial frontier approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    8. Sala-Garrido, Ramon & Mocholi-Arce, Manuel & Maziotis, Alexandros & Molinos-Senante, María, 2023. "The carbon and production performance of water utilities: Evidence from the English and Welsh water industry," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 292-300.
    9. Adriana Cobas & Alexandros Maziotis & Andrés Villegas, 2023. "Measurement of Efficiency and its Drivers in the Chilean Banking Industry," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 987, Central Bank of Chile.
    10. Zhang, Ning & Huang, Xuhui & Qi, Chao, 2022. "The effect of environmental regulation on the marginal abatement cost of industrial firms: Evidence from the 11th Five-Year Plan in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    11. Manuel Mocholi-Arce & Ramon Sala-Garrido & Maria Molinos-Senante & Alexandros Maziotis, 2022. "Measuring the eco-efficiency of the provision of drinking water by two-stage network data envelopment analysis," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(11), pages 12883-12899, November.
    12. Lundgren, Tommy & Marklund, Per-Olov & Zhang, Shanshan, 2016. "Industrial energy demand and energy efficiency – Evidence from Sweden," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 130-152.
    13. Farsi, Mehdi & Filippini, Massimo, 2009. "An analysis of cost efficiency in Swiss multi-utilities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 306-315, March.
    14. Goh, Kim Huat & See, Kok Fong, 2023. "Incorporating nonrevenue water in the efficiency assessment of water supply utilities: A parametric enhanced hyperbolic distance function," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    15. Maria Molinos-Senante & Alexandros Maziotis, 2021. "The Cost of Reducing Municipal Unsorted Solid Waste: Evidence from Municipalities in Chile," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-14, June.
    16. Zeng, Shihong & Jiang, Xue & Su, Bin & Nan, Xin, 2018. "China's SO2 shadow prices and environmental technical efficiency at the province level," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 86-102.
    17. Wu, Yinyin & Yu, Jie & Song, Malin & Chen, Jiandong & Hou, Wenxuan, 2021. "Shadow prices of industrial air pollutant emissions in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 726-736.
    18. Nakaishi, Tomoaki, 2021. "Developing effective CO2 and SO2 mitigation strategy based on marginal abatement costs of coal-fired power plants in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    19. He, Weijun & Yang, Yi & Wang, Zhaohua & Zhu, Joe, 2018. "Estimation and allocation of cost savings from collaborative CO2 abatement in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 62-74.
    20. Maziotis, Alexandros & Villegas, Andrés & Molinos-Senante, María & Sala-Garrido, Ramon, 2020. "Impact of external costs of unplanned supply interruptions on water company efficiency: Evidence from Chile," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).

    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:70:y:2021:i:c:s0957178721000278. 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.