Scale economies in the distribution of natural gas: a meta-analysis - This paper analyses the literature on scale economies in electricity and natural gas industries. In particular a meta-analysis is carried out in order to estimate the probability of increasing returns to scale in the network industry and namely in the gas distribution. This analysis highlights that the size effect in this industry is low. There exists only about 15% probability of increasing returns to scale. In addition the paper shows that the optimal scale corresponds to around 50.000 customers.
Keywords: Size, efficiency, gas distribution, economies of scale
Jel Code: D24, L25, L95