TY - JOUR
T1 - Cost efficiency in municipal solid waste service delivery. Alternative management forms in relation to local population size
AU - Pérez-López, Gemma
AU - Prior, Diego
AU - Zafra-Gómez, José Luis
AU - Plata-Díaz, Ana María
PY - 2016/12/1
Y1 - 2016/12/1
N2 - © 2016 Elsevier B.V. Considerable research has been devoted to the analysis of efficiency and of management forms for municipal waste collection, but widely varying results have been reported. In this paper, the metafrontier approach, by means of order-m frontiers, is used to analyse the efficiency of different ways of managing waste collection services, in order to determine which form is more appropriate. We compare the results obtained with this approach against those of previous theories. The advantage of applying this methodology is that unlike traditional nonparametric frontier analysis, we can compare the efficiency of different groups of municipalities according to their population size and to the management form adopted to supply the service. The results obtained suggest that, in general, cooperation formulas are the most suitable for the waste collection service. Thus, intermunicipal cooperation performs best in smaller municipalities (up to 20,000 inhabitants). However, we find that contracting out the service is associated with higher levels of efficiency in municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants.
AB - © 2016 Elsevier B.V. Considerable research has been devoted to the analysis of efficiency and of management forms for municipal waste collection, but widely varying results have been reported. In this paper, the metafrontier approach, by means of order-m frontiers, is used to analyse the efficiency of different ways of managing waste collection services, in order to determine which form is more appropriate. We compare the results obtained with this approach against those of previous theories. The advantage of applying this methodology is that unlike traditional nonparametric frontier analysis, we can compare the efficiency of different groups of municipalities according to their population size and to the management form adopted to supply the service. The results obtained suggest that, in general, cooperation formulas are the most suitable for the waste collection service. Thus, intermunicipal cooperation performs best in smaller municipalities (up to 20,000 inhabitants). However, we find that contracting out the service is associated with higher levels of efficiency in municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants.
KW - Cost efficiency
KW - Delivery forms
KW - Local government
KW - Metafrontier
KW - Municipal solid waste
U2 - 10.1016/j.ejor.2016.05.034
DO - 10.1016/j.ejor.2016.05.034
M3 - Article
SN - 0377-2217
VL - 255
SP - 583
EP - 592
JO - European Journal of Operational Research
JF - European Journal of Operational Research
IS - 2
ER -