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Under pressure: community water systems in the United States—a production model with water quality and organization type effects

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  • Roberto Mosheim

Abstract

This paper examines the interaction of productive efficiency, water quality and organizational type. A water quality index is constructed employing various contaminants which are then treated together with variables including organizational type as endogenous in an input distance function model. The cost of drinking water quality and inefficiency are derived and hypothesis tests estimated concerning their variation by location, organization type and water quality. The key findings are that more technically efficient water utilities deliver higher quality drinking water and that private firms distribute higher quality water at a higher price and at a higher implicit cost than public utilities despite no overall inefficiency differences between the two organizational types. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York (outside the USA) 2014

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  • Roberto Mosheim, 2014. "Under pressure: community water systems in the United States—a production model with water quality and organization type effects," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 277-292, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jproda:v:42:y:2014:i:3:p:277-292
    DOI: 10.1007/s11123-014-0406-y
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Water utilities; Water quality; Organizational form; L25; L33; L95;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • L33 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Comparison of Public and Private Enterprise and Nonprofit Institutions; Privatization; Contracting Out
    • L95 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Gas Utilities; Pipelines; Water Utilities

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