Efficiency Effects of Quality of Service and Environmental Factors: Experience from Norwegian Electricity Distribution

摘要: Since the 1990s, efficiency and benchmarking analysis has increasingly been used in network utilities research regulation. A recurrent concern is effect of environmental factors that are beyond influence firms (observable heterogeneity) not identifiable (unobserved on measured cost quality performance firms. This paper analyses geographic weather unobserved heterogeneity a set 128 Norwegian electricity distribution for 2001-2004 period. We utilize data almost 100 variables to identify real economic inefficiency while controlling observable heterogeneity. use factor technique reduce number into few composite avoid problem multi-collinearity. then estimate established stochastic frontier models Battese Coelli (1992; 1995) recent true fixed effects Greene (2004; 2005) without with variables. In former some have significant utilities. These vanish models. However, latter capture entire therefore show significantly higher average scores.