IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ulb/ulbeco/2013-43909.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How efficient are African Electricity Companies? Evidence from the Southern African Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Antonio Estache
  • B. Tovar
  • Lourdes Trujillo

Abstract

This paper is a first attempt at documenting efficiency levels in Africa's electricity firms, their evolution and the sources of this evolution. The analysis is based on a sample of 12 operators providing services in the 12 country members of the Southern Africa Power Pool. We focus on the changes in total factor productivity (TFP) of the largest operators in each country between 1998 and 2005. We then rely on a data envelopment analysis (DEA) decomposition to identify the sources of the changes in TFP. The results suggest fairly comparable levels of efficiency in the region and performance levels and evolution quite independent of the degree of vertical integration, the presence of a private actor or the main sources of energy supply. The analysis suggest that although the companies have not made significant improvements during the period of analysis in using their capital and human assets, they have done much better in adopting better technologies and better commercial practices. No clear correlation could be associated with the adoption of reforms during the last decade and data limitations impede a more refined assessment of the impact of reforms on efficiency at this stage.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Antonio Estache & B. Tovar & Lourdes Trujillo, 2008. "How efficient are African Electricity Companies? Evidence from the Southern African Countries," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/43909, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    • Handle: RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/43909
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chikkatur, Ananth P. & Sagar, Ambuj D. & Abhyankar, Nikit & Sreekumar, N., 2007. "Tariff-based incentives for improving coal-power-plant efficiencies in India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 3744-3758, July.
    2. Tim Coelli & Antonio Estache & Sergio Perelman & Lourdes Trujillo, 2003. "A Primer on Efficiency Measurement for Utilities and Transport Regulators," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15149.
    3. Antonio Estache & Sergio Perelman & Lourdes Trujillo, 2006. "Infrastructure Reform in Developing Economies: Evidence from a survey of efficiency measures," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/44062, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    4. Fare, Rolf & Shawna Grosskopf & Mary Norris & Zhongyang Zhang, 1994. "Productivity Growth, Technical Progress, and Efficiency Change in Industrialized Countries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(1), pages 66-83, March.
    5. Hu, Jin-Li & Wang, Shih-Chuan, 2006. "Total-factor energy efficiency of regions in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(17), pages 3206-3217, November.
    6. Thakur, Tripta & Deshmukh, S.G. & Kaushik, S.C., 2006. "Efficiency evaluation of the state owned electric utilities in India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(17), pages 2788-2804, November.
    7. Fare, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna, 1990. "A distance function approach to price efficiency," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 123-126, October.
    8. Wang, J.H. & Ngan, H.W. & Engriwan, W. & Lo, K.L., 2007. "Performance based regulation of the electricity supply industry in Hong Kong: An empirical efficiency analysis approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 609-615, January.
    9. Jamasb, T. & Mota, R. & Newbery, D. & Pollitt, M., 2004. "‘Electricity Sector Reform in Developing Countries: A Survey of Empirical Evidence on Determinants and Performance’," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0439, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    10. Leland Gerson Neuberg, 1977. "Two Issues in the Municipal Ownership of Electric Power Distribution," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 8(1), pages 303-323, Spring.
    11. E. Grifell-Tatjé & C. Lovell, 1999. "A generalized Malmquist productivity index," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 7(1), pages 81-101, June.
    12. Estache, Antonio & Goicoechea, Ana, 2005. "A"research"database on infrastructure economic performance," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3643, The World Bank.
    13. Jamasb, T. & Newbery, D. & Pollitt, M., 2004. "'Core Indicators for Determinants and Performance of Electricity Sector in Developing Countries’," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0438, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    14. Kumbhakar, Subal C. & Hjalmarsson, Lennart, 1998. "Relative performance of public and private ownership under yardstick competition: electricity retail distribution," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 97-122, January.
    15. Nishimizu, Mieko & Page, John M, Jr, 1982. "Total Factor Productivity Growth, Technological Progress and Technical Efficiency Change: Dimensions of Productivity Change in Yugoslavia, 1965-78," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(368), pages 920-936, December.
    16. Tim Coelli & Denis Lawrence (ed.), 2006. "Performance Measurement and Regulation of Network Utilities," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3801.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Estache, A. & Tovar, B. & Trujillo, L., 2007. "Are African electricity distribution companies efficient? Evidence from southern African countries," Working Papers 07/13, Department of Economics, City University London.
    2. Ramos-Real, Francisco Javier & Tovar, Beatriz & Iootty, Mariana & de Almeida, Edmar Fagundes & Pinto Jr., Helder Queiroz, 2009. "The evolution and main determinants of productivity in Brazilian electricity distribution 1998-2005: An empirical analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 298-305, March.
    3. Fang, Hong & Wu, Junjie & Zeng, Catherine, 2009. "Comparative study on efficiency performance of listed coal mining companies in China and the US," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5140-5148, December.
    4. Pérez-Reyes, Raúl & Tovar, Beatriz, 2009. "Measuring efficiency and productivity change (PTF) in the Peruvian electricity distribution companies after reforms," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2249-2261, June.
    5. Liam Wren-Lewis, 2015. "Do Infrastructure Reforms Reduce the Effect of Corruption? Theory and Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 29(2), pages 353-384.
    6. C.J. O'Donnell, 2011. "The Sources of Productivity Change in the Manufacturing Sectors of the U.S. Economy," CEPA Working Papers Series WP072011, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    7. Kabir Malik, Maureen Cropper, Alexander Limonov and Anoop Singh, 2015. "The Impact of Electricity Sector Restructuring on Coal-fired Power Plants in India," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    8. Ligia Melo & Néstor Espinosa, 2005. "Ineficiencia en la distribución de energía eléctrica: una aplicación de las funciones de distancia estocástica," Revista ESPE - Ensayos sobre Política Económica, Banco de la Republica de Colombia, vol. 23(49), pages 88-132, December.
    9. Valentin Zelenyuk, 2023. "Productivity analysis: roots, foundations, trends and perspectives," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 229-247, December.
    10. Kabir Malik & Maureen Cropper & Alexander Limonov & Anoop Singh, 2011. "Estimating the Impact of Restructuring on Electricity Generation Efficiency: The Case of the Indian Thermal Power Sector," NBER Working Papers 17383, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Subal Kumbhakar & Roar Amundsveen & Hilde Kvile & Gudbrand Lien, 2015. "Scale economies, technical change and efficiency in Norwegian electricity distribution, 1998–2010," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 295-305, June.
    12. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Yuan, Yan & Goto, Mika, 2017. "A literature study for DEA applied to energy and environment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 104-124.
    13. Tim Coelli & Denis Lawrence (ed.), 2006. "Performance Measurement and Regulation of Network Utilities," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3801.
    14. See, Kok Fong & Coelli, Tim, 2013. "Estimating and decomposing productivity growth of the electricity generation industry in Malaysia: A stochastic frontier analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 207-214.
    15. Nieswand, Maria & Seifert, Stefan, 2018. "Environmental factors in frontier estimation – A Monte Carlo analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(1), pages 133-148.
    16. Antonio Estache & Sergio Perelman & Lourdes Trujillo, 2006. "Infrastructure Reform in Developing Economies: Evidence from a survey of efficiency measures," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/44062, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    17. Bozec, Richard, 2004. "L’analyse comparative de la performance entre les entreprises publiques et les entreprises privées : le problème de mesure et son impact sur les résultats," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 80(4), pages 619-654, Décembre.
    18. Hu, Jin-Li & Wang, Shih-Chuan & Yeh, Fang-Yu, 2006. "Total-factor water efficiency of regions in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 217-230, December.
    19. Kerstens, Kristiaan & Van de Woestyne, Ignace, 2014. "Comparing Malmquist and Hicks–Moorsteen productivity indices: Exploring the impact of unbalanced vs. balanced panel data," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 233(3), pages 749-758.
    20. Yongqi Feng & Haolin Zhang & Yung-ho Chiu & Tzu-Han Chang, 2021. "Innovation efficiency and the impact of the institutional quality: a cross-country analysis using the two-stage meta-frontier dynamic network DEA model," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(4), pages 3091-3129, April.

    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:ulb:ulbeco:2013/43909. 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: Benoit Pauwels (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ecsulbe.html .

    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.