Economies of scale and utilization in the Swiss electric power distribution industry
- 1 May 1996
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Applied Economics
- Vol. 28 (5) , 543-550
- https://doi.org/10.1080/00036849600000033
Abstract
Economies of scale and utilization in the Swiss electricity distribution industry are analysed. A translog variable-cost function was estimated using panel data for a sample of 39 municipal utilities over the period 1988-1991. Economies of both scale and utilization appear to exist in the distribution of electricity, both for small-, medium- and large-sized utilities. Thus, the empirical evidence suggests sub-additivity of the cost function over the relevant range of output for the Swiss electricity distribution utilities, a necessary condition for a natural monopoly to exist.Keywords
This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit:
- Are Municipal Electricity Distribution Utilities Natural Monopolies?Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 1998
- Privatisation and the Efficiency of Decentralised Electricity Generation: Some Evidence from Inter-War BritainThe Economic Journal, 1992
- The Structure of Production, Technical Change and Efficiency in a Multiproduct Industry: An Application to U.S. AirlinesPublished by National Bureau of Economic Research ,1991
- The Sensitivity of Productivity Growth Measures to Alternative Structural and Behavioral Assumptions: An Application to Electric Utilities 1951–1984Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, 1991
- Primal and Dual Capacity Utilization: An Application to Productivity Measurement in the U.S. Automobile IndustryJournal of Business & Economic Statistics, 1985
- The Comparative Efficiency of Public and Private Enterprise in Britain: Electricity Generation Between the World WarsThe Economic Journal, 1985
- Multiproduct Short-Run Hospital Cost Functions: Empirical Evidence and Policy Implications from Cross-Section DataSouthern Economic Journal, 1983
- On the Pooling of Time Series and Cross Section DataEconometrica, 1978
- Economies of Scale in U.S. Electric Power GenerationJournal of Political Economy, 1976
- A characterization of the normalized restricted profit functionJournal of Economic Theory, 1976