A state-level analysis of the water system management efficiency in Mexico: Two-stage DEA approach

The public water system management in Mexico has recently been criticized due to severe problems with the availability of drinkable water. Significant differences exist between Mexican regions regarding the availability of renewable water and water system distribution. Moreover, water governance in the country is inefficient due to the lack of transparency in the water pol-icies. Therefore, the article aims to investigate whether there is a direct relationship between water system management efficiency and water system improvement efficiency and how the efficiency reflects the size of the population and the availability of renewable water in each state. For this, a two-stage DEA model is constructed to evaluate the water system management effi-ciency in Mexico. The results indicate high average water management efficiency but very low efficiency in the water system improvements. Furthermore, immense differences in the water system efficiency can be observed with respect to the characteristics and adopted policies.