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Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA): an Ex-Post Analysis of Water Services by the Legal Review in Portugal

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Abstract

This paper adopts an ex-post regulatory impact assessment (RIA) to analyze the effects of Law no.194/2009 on public-private partnerships (PPP) in the water sector in Portugal. Although the water services have been improving concerning coverage and safety since 1990, any change in regulation can have both “positive and negative” consequences either for customers, providers or local governments. This context can provide the opportunity to observe a national experiment of regulatory reform and assess its outcomes based on the following multiple targets: (i) customer protection; (ii) governance; (iii) financial, infrastructure and operational sustainability; and (iv) environmental improvement. To evaluate the impact of this legal reform, three steps were considered: (i) the status quo, scenarios and perspective; (ii) assessment; and (iii) consultation. Additionally, two aid methods were used: (i) expert opinions (Delphi) and (ii) multicriteria decision modelling method (TOPSIS) based on similarity distance to ideal solution. In fact, Law no.194/2009 reduced the gap in terms of performance between the concessions, but amplified the contrasts when all perspectives are compared. Regarding policy objectives, the major gap to overcome in a possible review of this legal framework is linked to the “economic-financial, operational and infrastructural sustainability objective”. Failures in any of these aspects can result in an ongoing PPP not meeting customer, municipality and concessionaire’s expectations.

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Abbreviations

IED:

Integral Euclidean distance

IQR:

Interquartile Range

MAUT:

Multi-attribute utility theory

MCDA:

Multicriteria decision analysis

NIS:

Negative ideal solution

PIS:

Positive ideal solution

PPP:

Public-private partnership

PWS:

Portuguese water sector

RIA:

Regulatory impact assessment

TOPSIS:

Technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution

WWU:

Water and wastewater utilities

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CERIS-IST, University of Lisbon, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001, Lisbon, Portugal

    Bruno Eustaquio de Carvalho & Rui Cunha Marques

  2. FT, University of Brasília, Anexo SG-12, Térreo, Asa Norte, Brasília, DF, 70910-900, Brazil

    Oscar Cordeiro Netto

Authors
  1. Bruno Eustaquio de Carvalho
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  2. Rui Cunha Marques
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  3. Oscar Cordeiro Netto
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bruno Eustaquio de Carvalho.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Table 2 Objectives, criteria, description, indicators and source
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Appendix 2

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Concessionaires studied in mainland Portuguese water sector (retail)

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Appendix 3

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Criteria, scale and value function

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Appendix 4

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TOPSIS common integrate distances

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Appendix 5

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figure 6

Argument-Delphi 1st and 2nd round in different perspectives: a customers, b municipalities and (c) concessionaires

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Appendix 6

Fig. 7
figure 7

Criteria’s impact according to the different perspectives: a customers, b municipalities and (c) concessionaires

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Appendix 7

Fig. 8
figure 8

TOPSIS’ distance according to the different perspectives: a customers, b municipalities and (c) concessionaires

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Appendix 8

Table 3 Effect’s level of “do nothing” scenario versus Law no.194/2009
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de Carvalho, B.E., Marques, R.C. & Netto, O.C. Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA): an Ex-Post Analysis of Water Services by the Legal Review in Portugal. Water Resour Manage 32, 675–699 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-017-1833-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-017-1833-0

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