Are Combination Gas and Electric Utilities Multiproduct Natural Monopolies?

Sing, Merrile

doi:10.2307/1925526

Cited by 31 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Moreover, four input prices are also included in the model. As in Sing (1987) customer density is introduced as a service area characteristic.…”

Section: Model Specification and Estimation Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition to the factor prices of labor, capital and fuel, he includes the customer density as an output characteristic. While reporting diseconomies of scope for the sample mean Sing (1987) The relatively recent papers by Fraquelli, Piacenza et al (2004) and Piacenza and Vannoni (2004) use data from 90 Italian electricity, gas and water distributors over 3 years. However the data is pooled across the years and no panel data models are applied.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Economies of Scale and Scope in Multi-Utilities

Farsi¹,

Fetz²,

Filippini³

2008

The Energy Journal

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This paper explores the economies of scale and scope in the electricity, gas and water utilities. These issues have a crucial importance in the actual policy debates about unbundling the integrated utilities into separate entities, a policy which has often been supported by the ongoing reforms in the deregulation of network industries. This paper argues that the potential improvements in efficiency through unbundling should be assessed against the loss of scope economies. Several econometric specifications including a random-coefficient model are used to estimate a cost function for a sample of utilities distributing electricity, gas and/or water to the Swiss population. The estimates of scale and scope economies are compared across different models and the effect of heterogeneity among companies are explored. While indicating considerable scope and scale economies overall, the results suggest a significant variation in scope economies across companies due to unobserved heterogeneity.JEL Classification: C33, D24, L11, L25, L94, L95

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“…Moreover, four input prices are also included in the model. As in Sing (1987) customer density is introduced as a service area characteristic.…”

Section: Model Specification and Estimation Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economies of Scale and Scope in Multi-Utilities

Farsi¹,

Fetz²,

Filippini³

2008

The Energy Journal

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“…As in Sing (1987) customer density is in-Assuming that the technology is convex and the firm minimizes cost, the adopted total cost function can be written as:…”

Section: Data and Model Specificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

An analysis of cost efficiency in Swiss multi-utilities

Farsi

Filippini

2009

Energy Economics

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“…7 As demonstrated by Christensen et al, the translog cost function is a second-order Taylor series approximation to any twice-differentiable cost function. This framework has been extended to multiple-output settings by a host of authors including Fuss and Waverman (1981), Evans and Heckman (1983), Kim (1987Kim ( , 1995, Sing (1987), and Berry and Mixon (1999), while Panzar and Willig (1977), Jorgenson (1986), Chambers (1988), and Panzar (1989) provide greater details on the theoretical characteristics of multiple-output production.…”

Section: Model Specificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of privatization and regulation on the water and sewerage industry in England and Wales: a translog cost function model

2000

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After the ten Regional Water Authorities (RWAs) of England and Wales were privatized in November 1989, the successor Water and Sewerage Companies (WASCs) faced a new regulatory regime that was designed to promote economic efficiency while simultaneously improving drinking water and environmental quality. As legally mandated quality improvements necessitated a costly capital investment programme, the industry's economic regulator, the Office of Water Services (Ofwat), implemented a retail price index (RPI)+K pricing system, which was designed to compensate the WASCs for their capital investment programme while also encouraging gains in economic efficiency. In order to analyse jointly the impact of privatization, as well as the impact of increasingly stringent economic and environmental regulation on the WASCs' economic performance, this paper estimates a translog multiple output cost function model for the period 1985-1999. Given the significant costs associated with water quality improvements, the model is augmented to include the impact of drinking water quality and environmental quality on total costs. The model is then employed to determine the extent of scale and scope economies in the water and sewerage industry, as well as the impact of privatization and economic regulation on economic efficiency. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Are Combination Gas and Electric Utilities Multiproduct Natural Monopolies?

Cited by 31 publications

References 7 publications

Economies of Scale and Scope in Multi-Utilities

Economies of Scale and Scope in Multi-Utilities

An analysis of cost efficiency in Swiss multi-utilities

The impact of privatization and regulation on the water and sewerage industry in England and Wales: a translog cost function model

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