Show simple item record

dc.contributor.authorWorthington, Andrew C
dc.contributor.authorHiggs, Helen
dc.date.accessioned2017-06-12T03:19:07Z
dc.date.available2017-06-12T03:19:07Z
dc.date.issued2014
dc.identifier.issn0957-1787
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.jup.2014.09.004
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10072/67526
dc.description.abstractThis paper estimates economies of scale and scope for 55 major Australian urban utilities over the period 2005/06 to 2008/09. The models used specify operating and capital costs as a function of chemical and microbiological compliance, water losses, water quality and service, water main breaks, total connected properties, and urban water supplied. The input variables used to help determine water utility costs include the density of properties served and the sourcing of water from bulk suppliers, groundwater, recycling and surface water. In terms of economies of scale, the evidence suggests strong economies of scale at relatively low levels of output (50-75% of current mean output). In terms of product-specific economies of scale (increasing the scale of a specific output in isolation), there is substantially stronger evidence that the operating costs of urban water utilities would benefit from increasing scale with regard to chemical compliance, water quality and service complaints, and the number of connected properties. In contrast, capital costs would benefit from scale increases with regard to the management of water losses and water main breaks. For economies of scope, it is clear that there are substantial cost benefits from the joint production of treated quality water delivered across a network with minimal water losses and main breaks. The main cost advantage at all levels of output is decreasing water losses, and this would benefit both operating and capital costs.
dc.description.peerreviewedYes
dc.description.publicationstatusYes
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherElsevier
dc.publisher.placeUnited Kingdom
dc.relation.ispartofstudentpublicationN
dc.relation.ispartofpagefrom52
dc.relation.ispartofpageto62
dc.relation.ispartofjournalUtilities Policy
dc.relation.ispartofvolume31
dc.rights.retentionY
dc.subject.fieldofresearchEnvironment and resource economics
dc.subject.fieldofresearchPolicy and administration
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode380105
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode4407
dc.titleEconomies of scale and scope in Australian urban water utilities
dc.typeJournal article
dc.type.descriptionC1 - Articles
dc.type.codeC - Journal Articles
dcterms.licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.description.versionAccepted Manuscript (AM)
gro.facultyGriffith Business School, Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics
gro.rights.copyright© 2014 Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, providing that the work is properly cited.
gro.hasfulltextFull Text
gro.griffith.authorWorthington, Andrew C.
gro.griffith.authorHiggs, Helen


Files in this item

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

  • Journal articles
    Contains articles published by Griffith authors in scholarly journals.

Show simple item record