AWWA JAW69179

This research investigated merger and consolidationin the water industry to gain insight into the causesdriving these activities. An economic model was developedto analyze data from more than 6,000 mergers ofcommunity water systems in six midwestern states. Themodel considered such variables as number of waterquality and monitoring violations, whether or not asystem already purchased water, and system ownership(public versus private).Small water systems that were acquired were morelikely to have violated the Safe Drinking Water Act(SDWA). Publicly owned firms were less likely to beacquired, perhaps because of the high political costsassociated with selling government assets. Systems thatpurchased water and thus already had interconnectedinfrastructure also were more likely to merge.Merger has not been fully explored as a mechanismto increase regulatory compliance. These findingssuggest that policies that lower the political,regulatory, and physical cost of mergers may helpmake it a more effective tool to boost SDWAcompliance. Includes 28 references, tables.

Product Details

Edition:

Vol. 100 - No. 11

Published:

11/01/2008

Number of Pages:

10

File Size:

1 file