Title: Performance and Regulatory Policy for the Privatization of China’s Urban Public Utilities

Author: Wang Junhao, Zhou Xiaomei, Wang Jianming, Li Yunyan

Translated by Wu Congsheng

ISBN: 978-1-84464-664-7

Hardback - 548 pages

February 2022

English

£90  €110  $150

The urban public utilities industry is a comprehensive industry that provides urban residents the essential services for living and production. The services include urban water supply, drainage, sewage treatment, gas supply, central heating, urban road and public transportation, environmental hygiene, garbage disposal, and urban landscaping. The industry has the basic technical and economic features of fundamentality, monopoly, network effect, externality, public welfare, and regionalism. According to conventional theories, urban public utilities are classic examples of market failures where market competition mechanism fails to function, and they should be monopolized by one or very few state-run enterprises in a given region. Nevertheless, under the traditional regulatory framework, urban public utilities suffer from several structural problems: low efficiency in general; lack of competition due to monopolistic operation; severe underinvestment due to relatively monotonous investment channel; and lack of incentives to improve production efficiency under the current price discovery mechanism. Consequently, the reform of urban public utilities seems urgent. This book analyses essential issues.

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