TY - JOUR
T1 - Use of data envelopment analysis in the regulation of UK water utilities
T2 - Water distribution
AU - Thanassoulis, Emmanuel
PY - 2000/10/16
Y1 - 2000/10/16
N2 - Regulation is increasingly playing a major role in defence of the public interest in the UK and other economies, in the aftermath of the privatization of utilities operating in near monopoly environments. This paper gives an account of the use of data envelopment analysis (DEA) by the regulator of water companies in England and Wales in 1994 in the context of setting price limits. DEA is a general purpose linear programming-based method for assessing the productive efficiencies of operating units such as bank branches or schools. The paper details the use of DEA to estimate potential savings in the specific context of water distribution and discusses the use of the results obtained. It also highlights certain generic issues arising in the use of DEA and more generally performance measurement methods in the regulatory context.
AB - Regulation is increasingly playing a major role in defence of the public interest in the UK and other economies, in the aftermath of the privatization of utilities operating in near monopoly environments. This paper gives an account of the use of data envelopment analysis (DEA) by the regulator of water companies in England and Wales in 1994 in the context of setting price limits. DEA is a general purpose linear programming-based method for assessing the productive efficiencies of operating units such as bank branches or schools. The paper details the use of DEA to estimate potential savings in the specific context of water distribution and discusses the use of the results obtained. It also highlights certain generic issues arising in the use of DEA and more generally performance measurement methods in the regulatory context.
KW - Data envelopment analysis
KW - Performance measurement
KW - Regulation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0034675394&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221799003033
U2 - 10.1016/S0377-2217(99)00303-3
DO - 10.1016/S0377-2217(99)00303-3
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0034675394
VL - 126
SP - 436
EP - 453
JO - European Journal of Operational Research
JF - European Journal of Operational Research
SN - 0377-2217
IS - 2
ER -