The Case for International Coordination of Electricity Regulation: Evidence from the Measurement of Efficiency in South America

Abstract

A decade long experience shows that monitoring the approach that relies on performance rankings based on performance of public and private monopolies in South comparative efficiency measures. The authors show that America is proving to be the hard part of the reform with the rather modest data currently available publicly, process. The operators who control most of the such an approach could yield useful results. They provide information needed for regulatory purposes have little estimates of efficiency levels in South America's main interest in volunteering their dissemination unless they distribution companies between 1994 and 2000. have an incentive to do so. Estache, Rossi, and Ruzzier Moreover, the authors show how relatively simple tests argue that, in spite of, and maybe because of, a much can be used by regulators to check the robustness of their weaker information base and governance structure, results and strengthen their position at regulatory South America's electricity sector could pursue an hearings.This paper-a joint product of the Governance, Regulation, and Finance Division, World Bank Institute, and the Finance, Private Sector, and Infrastructure Unit, Latin America and the Caribbean Region-is part of a larger effort in the institute to increase understanding of infrastructure regulation. Copies of the paper are available free from the World Bank,

Application of Panel Data Models in Benchmarking Analysis of the Electricity Distribution Sector*

“…Jamasb and Pollit (2003) report substantial variations in estimated efficiency scores and rank orders across different approaches (parametric and non-parametric) and among different econometric models applied to a cross sectional sample of European power distribution utilities. More or less similar discrepancies have been reported by Estache et al (2004) and Filippini (2004, 2005) in two samples of power distributors respectively from Switzerland and South 1…”

Formative evaluation of electricity distribution utilities using data envelopment analysis

“…Other studies also offering insightful discussions on the use of DEA to inter-country benchmarking of electricity distribution utilities include Pardina et al (1998), Edvardsen and Førsund (2003), Jamasb and Pollitt (2003), and Estache et al (2004).…”

COOPER-framework: A unified process for non-parametric projects

“…Let p be the number of inputs and q be the number of outputs used in the analysis, then the sample size n should satisfy n ≥ max{p × q, 3(p + q)}. In addition, if observations are added, the 'world best practice frontier' will be better approached (Estache et al, 2004), although due to the sample size bias average efficiency will decrease (see below; Zhang and Bartels, 1998). Secondly, consider the level of the DMUs which influences the shape of the production possibility set (i.e., the frontier; and is therefore included in this phase).…”