In several arid and semi-arid Mediterranean basins, water deficits in irrigated agriculture during drought events are relieved by illegal abstractions from aquifers. Illegal abstractions are largely tolerated by the authorities and are regarded by farmers as a reliable and inexpensive form of...

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to estimate and compare the efficiency of several water utilities using three frontier techniques. Moreover, this study estimates the impact of several qualities of service variables on water utilities’ performance. Design/methodology/approach: The paper...

We innovate in the field of water companies' performance with an application of the directional distance function and the Luenberger productivity indicator (LPI) to the assessment of water companies' productivity growth. The advantage of our approach is that it takes into account both input...

Abstract This paper surveys the literature on scale and scope economies in the water and sewerage industry. The magnitude of scale and scope economies determines the cost efficient configuration of any industry. In the case of a regulated sector, reliable estimates of these economies are...