Author(s)

Miyuki Taniguchi

Graduate School of Economics, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan.

This study aims to measure the impact of liberalization on the efficiency of electricity production in Japan using Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). In addition, this study also aims to examine whether or not economies of scale exist in the electricity generation sector and the transmission sector, and whether or not economies of scope exist between electricity generation and transmission. Since 1995, liberalization of the electricity market in Japan has been phased in and regulations on entry have been relaxed three times. One motivation for these regularity changes has been to improve the efficiency of electricity production by introducing competition. Using a panel data set on the nine main power companies in Japan over the period 1970-2010, estimates of fixed-effects and stochastic frontier models of the cost function are obtained and compared. Estimates of the cost function show that liberalization has improved cost efficiency when both frontier models and non-frontier models are estimated. Estimates of the fixed-effects model are used to calculate economies of scale and economies scope because the data support the fixed-effects model. Economies of scope are found to exist for all nine power companies, while overall economies of scope declined in the 1970s and have improved little by little since the 1980s.

Cost Function; Electricity; Liberalization; Stochastic Frontier Analysis; Economies of Scope; Vertical Integration

Taniguchi, M. (2014) The Impact of Liberalization on the Production of Electricity in Japan: Stochastic Frontier Analysis. Open Journal of Applied Sciences, 4, 155-167. doi: 10.4236/ojapps.2014.44016.