IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/irapec/v27y2013i2p150-173.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What matters to performance? Structural and institutional dimensions of water utility governance

Author

Listed:
  • Janice A. Beecher

Abstract

A prolific theoretical and empirical literature has examined the relevance of structures and institutions to public utility performance, with a particular emphasis on the discrete role of ownership. The empirical findings are inconsistent and mostly indeterminate. A narrow emphasis on ownership deflects attention from the inextricable role of governance. The impact of privatization may be marginal compared with alternative governance reforms. Offered here is an informal, practical, and parsimonious conceptual model that distinguishes between structural (endogenous) and institutional (exogenous) governance. Three structural dimensions (ownership form, practice standards, and enterprise autonomy) are juxtaposed against three institutional dimensions (market contestability, external review, and economic regulation). Each dimension may be complementary or substitutive. Given persistent monopoly, privatization may be unnecessary and will be insufficient for ensuring performance. Economic regulation is a prerequisite for privatization but privatization is not a prerequisite for reform. Focusing on the US water sector, this paper offers a descriptive analysis for understanding why this is the case. A pragmatic approach is to strengthen core governance capacities in relation to performance priorities, which ultimately matter most of all.

Suggested Citation

  • Janice A. Beecher, 2013. "What matters to performance? Structural and institutional dimensions of water utility governance," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(2), pages 150-173, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:irapec:v:27:y:2013:i:2:p:150-173
    DOI: 10.1080/02692171.2012.752447
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/02692171.2012.752447
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/02692171.2012.752447?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. John Vickers & George Yarrow, 1988. "Privatization: An Economic Analysis," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262720116, December.
    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. Nyathikala, Sai Amulya & Jamasb, Tooraj & Llorca, Manuel & Kulshrestha, Mukul, 2023. "Utility governance, incentives, and performance: Evidence from India's urban water sector," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    2. Guerrini, A. & Romano, G., 2017. "Contract renegotiation by an Italian wastewater utility: Action research to promote effective tariff revision," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 176-183.
    3. Romano, Giulia & Molinos-Senante, María & Guerrini, Andrea, 2017. "Water utility efficiency assessment in Italy by accounting for service quality: An empirical investigation," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 97-108.
    4. González-Gómez, Francisco & García-Rubio, Miguel A. & González-Martínez, Jesús, 2014. "Beyond the public–private controversy in urban water management in Spain," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 1-9.
    5. D'Amore, Gabriella & Landriani, Loris & Lepore, Luigi, 2021. "Ownership and sustainability of Italian water utilities: The stakeholder role," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    6. Ouda, Omar K.M. & Al-Waked, Rafat F. & Alshehri, Abdulrahman A., 2014. "Privatization of water-supply services in Saudi Arabia: A unique experience," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 107-113.
    7. Massimiliano Agovino & Massimiliano Cerciello & Antonio Garofalo & Loris Landriani & Luigi Lepore, 2021. "Corporate governance and sustainability in water utilities. The effects of decorporatisation in the city of Naples, Italy," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 874-890, February.
    8. Homsy, George C. & Warner, Mildred E., 2020. "Does public ownership of utilities matter for local government water policies?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    9. Landriani, Loris & Agrifoglio, Rocco & Metallo, Concetta & Lepore, Luigi, 2022. "The role of knowledge in water service coproduction and policy implications," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    10. Landriani, Loris & Lepore, Luigi & D'Amore, Gabriella & Pozzoli, Stefano & Alvino, Federico, 2019. "Decorporatization of a municipal water utility: A case study from Italy," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 43-47.
    11. Hellwig, Michael & Polk, Andreas, 2021. "Do political links influence water prices? Determinants of water prices in Germany," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    12. Fremeth, Adam R. & Holburn, Guy L.F., 2020. "The impact of political directors on corporate strategy for government-owned utilities: Evidence from Ontario's electricity distribution sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    13. Dobbin, Kristin B. & Fencl, Amanda L., 2021. "Institutional diversity and safe drinking water provision in the United States," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    14. Sara Hughes & Jacqueline Peterson, 2018. "Transforming Municipal Services to Transform Cities: Understanding the Role and Influence of the Private Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, January.
    15. Pinto, Francisco Silva & Simões, Pedro & Marques, Rui Cunha, 2017. "Raising the bar: The role of governance in performance assessments," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 38-47.
    16. Massimo Florio, 2014. "Contemporary public enterprises: innovation, accountability, governance," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 201-208, September.

    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. Baltagi, Badi H. & Yen, Yin-Fang, 2014. "Hospital treatment rates and spillover effects: Does ownership matter?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 193-202.
    2. Germa Bel & Anton Costas, 2006. "Do Public Sector Reforms Get Rusty? Local Privatization in Spain," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 1-24.
    3. N.F. Cruz & R.C. Marques & A. Marra & C. Pozzi, 2014. "Local Mixed Companies: The Theory And Practice In An International Perspective," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 85(1), pages 1-9, March.
    4. Orietta DESSY & Massimo FLORIO, 2004. "Workers' earnings in the UK before and after privatisation: a study of five industries," Departmental Working Papers 2004-13, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    5. Diane Sharratt & Bitten H. Brigham & Martin Brigham, 2007. "The Utility of Social Obligations in the UK Energy Industry," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(8), pages 1503-1522, December.
    6. Michael A. Crew & Paul R. Kleindorfer, 2013. "Privatization of postal operators: old arguments and new realities," Chapters, in: Michael A. Crew & Paul R. Kleindorfer (ed.), Reforming the Postal Sector in the Face of Electronic Competition, chapter 1, pages 1-19, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. James A. Schmitz, 1996. "The role played by public enterprises: how much does it differ across countries?," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 20(Spr), pages 2-15.
    8. Paul Walker, 2016. "From complete to incomplete (contracts): A survey of the mainstream approach to the theory of privatisation," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(2), pages 212-229, August.
    9. A. Brandão & S. Castro, 2007. "State-owned enterprises as indirect instruments of entry regulation," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 92(3), pages 263-274, December.
    10. Stephen King & Rohan Pitchford, 2008. "Private or Public? Towards a Taxonomy of Optimal Ownership and Management Regimes," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 84(266), pages 366-377, September.
    11. Matsumura, Toshihiro, 1998. "Partial privatization in mixed duopoly," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 473-483, December.
    12. Evans, Lewis, 1998. "The Theory and Practice of Privatisation," Working Paper Series 3936, Victoria University of Wellington, The New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation.
    13. Boudreaux, Christopher, 2019. "Do private enterprises outperform state enterprises in an emerging market? The importance of institutional context in entrepreneurship," MPRA Paper 93039, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. R. Daviddi, 1994. "Privatisation in the transition to a market economy," Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 47(191), pages 399-429.
    15. Gong, Stephen X.H. & Cullinane, Kevin & Firth, Michael, 2012. "The impact of airport and seaport privatization on efficiency and performance: A review of the international evidence and implications for developing countries," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 37-47.
    16. Elisa BORGHI & Chiara DEL BO & Massimo FLORIO, 2010. "The theory of public enterprise, social welfare and planning: a note," Departmental Working Papers 2010-20, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    17. Maria Moschandreas, 1997. "The Role of Opportunism in Transaction Cost Economics," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 39-58, March.
    18. Jamasb, T. & Pollitt, M., 2000. "Benchmarking and regulation: international electricity experience," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 107-130, September.
    19. Kenneth Button, 2016. "Public--private partnerships: a review of economic considerations with particular reference to transportation projects," Transportation Planning and Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(2), pages 136-161, March.
    20. Ba, Lika & Gasmi, Farid, 2011. "To what extent do infrastructure and financial sectors reforms interplay? Evidence from panel data on the power sector in developing countries," IDEI Working Papers 692, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:taf:irapec:v:27:y:2013:i:2:p:150-173. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CIRA20 .

    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.