Miguel A. García-Rubio

Why Is Non-revenue Water So High in So Many Cities?

The efficient management of water resources is a growing necessity. Paradoxically, although people are aware of this need, non-revenue water is excessive in many cities in the world. Non-revenue water data indicate that there is much room for improvement in water resource management in cities and they also suggest a lack of motivation to solve the problem in the short-term. This paper investigates the reasons why non-revenue water is so high in many cities around the world. The lack of incentives for management units, the defence of private interests due to corruption, the lack of awareness of citizens-users of the water service and the lack of political willingness are the main causes.

Does a red shirt improve sporting performance? Evidence from Spanish football

Recent research has linked red shirts to sporting success. In this article, we analyse the relationship between the colour red and sporting performance in the Spanish Professional Football League. Our foremost conclusion is that once the effect of the different endowments of resources and the ability of managers have been discounted, teams with red shirts do not show greater performance than teams wearing shirts of other colours.

Outsourcing and Efficiency in the Management of Rural Water Services

Rural areas are finding it increasingly difficult to manage water services for household purposes. Local governments cannot afford the high investment and maintenance costs the service entails, leading many rural towns in Spain to outsource the service. Doing so enables local governments to balance their budgets and professionalise management in response to the more exacting requirements imposed by European water regulations. In Spain it is possible to outsource the management of the water service to a public, private or public-private company. This research applies Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to a sample of 80 rural water utilities in Southern Spain in order to compare the efficiency of these three forms of management. Despite initially finding that private companies and public-private partnerships are more efficient than public companies, no differences in efficiency can be observed between the three forms of management when environmental variables are taken into consideration. Results show that public-private partnerships are no less efficient than fully private or fully public companies.

Analysis of urban water management in historical perspective: evidence for the Spanish case.

The level of public and private involvement in economic activity in societies has changed over time. One may talk about the existence of a cyclical trend in which the most important periods of public management are replaced by periods in which private management dominates the situation. This phenomenon may also be observed in local areas. Some authors have pointed out the existence of an alternation in the provision of municipal services, resulting in periods dominated by public management compared with other stages dominated by private management. In order to illustrate this cyclical trend at the local level, this paper intends to analyse the evolution of the governance of the Spanish water supply since the mid-19th century to the present day. Recent evidence from the industry suggests the possibility that a further change in the trend may currently be being witnessed.

Desalination in Spain: A Growing Alternative for Water Supply

The Spanish Mediterranean coast has a significant water deficit. In order to deal with potential shortages in the future, the AGUA programme has been constructing desalination plants since 2004. Taking into account the growing importance of desalination in Spain, the objective of this research is to offer an overview of desalination in this country, its evolution and its present situation. This paper sets out to review the legal framework, the stakeholders who participate and support this activity, the technologies employed, the production costs and the environmental impacts. Some of the factors that have helped boost the interest in desalination are political support, the implementation of more adequate technologies and the favourable evolution of the associated costs.

Urban Water Service Policies and Management in Spain: Pending Issues

In the context of a developed nation like Spain, there are still important challenges to improving urban water service. Pending issues include the insufficient supervision and control of water service management, low prices that do not foster an efficient use of water, enormous disparity in water tariff design, deterioration of water quality at origin, insufficient network renewal, high level of water losses, lack of waste water treatment plans and supply quality problems. This paper describes all these problems and proposes measures and recommendations to solve them.

The impact of a mid‐season change of manager on sporting performance

Purpose – This paper aims to evaluate the impact of a mid‐season change of manager on the sporting performance of professional football teams in the First Division of the Spanish Football League.Design/methodology/approach – In team sports, the manager takes important decisions that affect the sporting performance of the team. Although the manager is normally hired for a period of at least one season, clubs frequently change managers halfway through that period. Before taking that decision, the Board of Directors probably ask themselves: “Do we sack the manager … or is it better not to?” Data envelopment analysis (DEA) techniques are used to compare the performance of a group of teams that have changed their manager mid‐season to that of teams that have stuck with the same manager for the entire season.Findings – The main result is that a mid‐season change of manager improves sporting performance, but it does not allow to perform as well as teams that have not changed managers halfway through the season.P...

Managing Water Resources Under Conditions of Scarcity: On Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Improving Water Supply Infrastructure

Conservation and efficient management of water resources is an essential ingredient for achieving sustainable development. River basins in Southern Europe are suffering from high water stress, while leakages in some areas far surpass recommended levels. This study uses the contingent valuation method in order to assess willingness to pay (WTP) by consumers in the Guadalquivir River basin in Spain for improving urban water supply infrastructure and reducing leakages. On average, individuals would be willing to pay an extra charge on their water bill ranging from €8.23 to €9.65. In addition to the expected positive effect of income on WTP, respondents with negative perceptions of their drinking water quality as well as those most affected by the economic crisis have a lower WTP. Conversely, WTP is higher for men and respondents showing greater commitment to the environment. These results provide policymakers with information that might help them to improve water-pricing policies in a context of severe water scarcity, especially considering the principle of cost recovery introduced by the EU Water Framework Directive in pricing water services.

Public Participation in European Water Management: from Theory to Practice

Public and stakeholder participation in water management is a crucial element in the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). Theoretically, the WFD identifies several advantages of public participation, such as the better use of knowledge and experiences from different stakeholders, increases in public acceptance and reduced litigation, delays, and inefficiencies in implementation. However, few studies have gone as deep, in practical terms, as the existing difficulty to introduce public participation in water management. The aim of this study was to cover this issue. It aims to conduct a literature review on public participation looking for successful social innovation experiences by the EU member states and also for the main limitations and difficulties of implementation detailing the study of the Spanish case.

Privatising Water Utilities and User Perception of Tap Water Quality: Evidence from Spanish Urban Water Services

This paper seeks to contribute to the current debate about public versus private management of urban water supply services. The main purpose of urban water supply is to ensure the provision of a sufficient quantity of good quality water to users. This article examines water quality by using a subjective indicator: user satisfaction with tap water quality. The goal of the paper is to determine whether users perceive a difference in tap water quality supplied by public operators on the one hand, and by private-sector operators on the other. Data is sourced from a survey carried out in 64 Spanish cities. A number of different subjective determinants of water quality have been considered: the socio-economic characteristics of those surveyed, objective indicators of water quality, as well as environmental and economic factors of urban water services. Data analysis, using an ordered logit regression model, shows that when urban water services are in the hands of a private company, the quality of the tap water, as perceived by users, deteriorates.