RT Journal Article
T1 Inefficiency persistence and heterogeneity in Colombian electricity utilities
A1 Galán Camacho, Jorge Eduardo
A1 Pollitt, Michael G.
AB The electricity reform in Colombia has exhibited gains in terms of reliability but its effects on firm efficiency and service quality have not been clear. Previous studies evaluating the performance of distribution companies after the reform have not found evidence of improvements, although large differences in efficiency have been found among firms. This suggests high inefficiency persistence and heterogeneity in the Colombian distribution sector. In this paper, we propose an extension of dynamic stochastic frontier models that accounts for unobserved heterogeneity in the inefficiency persistence and in the technology. The model incorporates total expenses, service quality and energy losses in an efficiency analysis of Colombian distributors over fifteen years after the reform. We identify the presence of high inefficiency persistence in the sector, and important differences between firms. In particular, rural companies and firms with small customers present low persistence and evidence the largest gains in efficiency during the period. However, increases in efficiency are only manifested during the last five years when the main improvements in service quality and energy losses are presented. Overall, inefficiency persistence, customer density and consumption density are found to be important criteria to be considered for regulatory purposes.
PB Elsevier
SN 0140-9883
YR 2014
FD 2014-11-01
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10016/23486
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10016/23486
LA eng
NO Jorge E. Galán acknowledges from the Energy Policy Research Group at the Universityof Cambridge and the financial support Spanish Ministry of Education and Science,research project ECO2012-3401.
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RD 18 may. 2024