| From high-speed growth to high-quality growth is a new trend of new economic era in China.Under the background of high-speed urbanization,whether it can meet the increasing demand for water or not has become an important issue.At present,more academic focus in the water sector is still improving the efficiency of the water industry,market design and government regulation,so it lacks sufficient understanding of the service quality in water industry.In fact,water as a composite of quantity and quality has always had endogenous factors of quality.Investigating the factors of quality in water supply process in China is very significant in theoretical and practical level and has more benefits to improve water supply efficiency and the service level.Based on the technical characteristics of the water industry and the theory of public goods,this paper constructs the service quality index system of the water industry.According to the trade-off relationship between quantity and quality and the theory of product differentiation,this paper analyzes the impact of service quality in the water industry on efficiency,and uses the DEA model to measure the traditional efficiency which does not include quality factors and quality-adjusted efficiency,and comparative analysis was carried out.The Tobit model was further used,and the panel data from the Urban Water Supply Statistical Yearbook(2005-2016)was used as a sample to establish a relationship model between quality and efficiency.The conclusion shows that(1)the water industry can be embodied in both technical and public aspects due to its attributes of product characteristics and quasi-public goods.The technical level can be characterized as the quality of water resource and infrastructure,and the public aspect can be characterized as the Popularity rate;(2)the outcome of DEA efficiency indicates that the technical efficiency is generally in the middle level of 0.5-0.7,and the scale efficiency is in the higher level of 0.8-1,pure technical efficiency is in the low level and is the main reason affecting overall efficiency.Through the comparison of traditional DEA efficiency and quality-adjusted DEA efficiency,the paper proves that quality has an impact on efficiency,and measures the opportunity cost of maintaining China’s water industry service quality which is 5.21%of potential output.(3)The results of Tobit empirical analysis model show that the water quality comprehensive qualified rate,pipe network pressure qualified rate are positively correlated with efficiency,and the leakage rate is negatively correlated with efficiency.It shows that the improvement of service quality will promote the efficiency.Finally,paper gives some suggestions from the dimensions of management and standards. |
