Impact of Public Service Quality on the Efficiency of the Water Industry: Evidence from 147 Cities in China

Jian Chang, Wanhua Li (), Yaodong Zhou, Peng Zhang and Hengxin Zhang
Additional contact information
Jian Chang: School of Economics and Management, Beijing Jiaotong University (BJTU), Beijing 100044, China
Wanhua Li: School of Economics and Management, Beijing Jiaotong University (BJTU), Beijing 100044, China
Yaodong Zhou: School of Economics and Management, Beijing Jiaotong University (BJTU), Beijing 100044, China
Peng Zhang: School of Economics and Management, Beijing Jiaotong University (BJTU), Beijing 100044, China
Hengxin Zhang: Leeds University Businesses School, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 22, 1-17

Abstract: Nowadays, water service marketization has become a global trend, and the quality of public services has gradually become an important factor affecting the input and output of urban water utilities. This paper defines the connotation of service quality at the technical and public aspects innovatively, builds on the service quality system of water utilities, establishes the relationship between the quality and output efficiency model, and studies the impact of service quality on the efficiency of water utilities. Then, based on 147 cities’ water supply data during the 2005–2016 period in China, the data envelopment analysis model and Tobit panel data model were used in the empirical research to measure the efficiency characterized by the quality dimension. The results show that: (1) The service quality of the water industry is reflected in two aspects: technical and publicity. At the technical level, the service quality of the water industry can be represented by the supply capacity of water and infrastructure, and at the public level, by the penetration rate. (2) The overall comprehensive efficiency of urban water utilities in China is in the middle level of 0.5–0.7, the scale efficiency is at a high level of 0.8–1, and the pure technical efficiency is relatively low. The opportunity cost of maintaining service quality in China’s water sector is 5.21% of the potential output. (3) Public service quality is significantly positively correlated with the efficiency of China’s water utilities, and the improvement of service quality will promote the improvement of efficiency.

Keywords: the water sector; service quality; efficiency; DEA-Tobit model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/22/15160/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/22/15160/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:22:p:15160-:d:973841

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().