Eficiência de empresas públicas: uma aplicação às empresas de saneamento no Brasil

Abstract

This work analyses the inefficiency of public enterprises in Brazil, studying specifically the case of the sanitation sector. The sanitation sector is characterized as a natural monopoly, with a high cost of investments, which makes inefficient the existence of another firm operating in the same sector, this impossibility of competition can be as a consequence a non-incentive to efficiency. In order to analyse the efficiency of public companies in Brazil, specifically the case of the sanitation sector, we will be made a two-part analysis. The first part aims to establish a limit for an inefficient monopoly government, from which it would be better to privatize the company. Theoretically, the operation of a natural monopoly by the government would be more efficient than the regulation of a private monopoly, but in practice this may not be the case. Thus, a comparison will be made between a private, unregulated monopoly and an inefficient government monopoly. This comparison aims to establish a value for the parameter of inefficiency, from which it would be better that the company was not owned by the government. The second part, which deals with the empirical study, is based on a methodology proposed by Laffont and Tirole (1986) to encourage efficiency. Based on this model will be analyzed the data of the companies that operate the sanitation sector in Brazil and using a switching regression model. The data were obtained from the Sistema Nacional de Saneamento – SNIS and a comparison between Compensation and Costs will be made in the remuneration of these companies following the theoretical model. The study seeks to find a model proposal that encourages natural monopolies to be more efficient, verifying possible patterns to be followed.