Le cout economique d'un service public urbain : le cas du metro de caracas
Institution:
Paris 12Disciplines:
Directors:
Abstract EN:
The analysis of the world bank studies concerning metro economical evaluation permits to state: a) an elementary distinction between expense and cost is non existent; b) the developers expenses for construction and operation are known, but nobody knows how much it cost the community. The bank's approach favored the financial and accountant aspects over the economical ones: expenses over costs. Pur proposal was to observe the economical evaluation of the internal costs of a metro. We have made 2 hypothesis: i) the cost notion can be specified compared to the expense notion and it can be worked out; ii) internal costs are not necessarily more important than internal expenses. About the first hypothesis, the cost notion is as precise as the expense notion, as well as a pragmatic method to estimate costs starting for expenses. After applying this method to evaluate the caracas metro, we were able to show that: i) the investment expenses stated were 15% lower than the investment costs. The equipment's economical cost was 41% higher than the bill that the government paid to equip the network; ii) operational expenses were 10% higher than the operational costs. Concerning the second hypothesis, we have showed that the internal costs are not necessarily more important than th internal expenses: the investment costs exceeded expenses (15%); the staff expenses, energy and general expenditures were higher than its costs, while maintenance costs were by far more important than its expenses.
Abstract FR:
L'analyse des etudes de la banque mondiale concernant l'evaluation "economique" de metros a permis de constater: (a) qu'une distinction aussi elementaire que la distinction entre la depense et le cout n'y est pas faite, et (b) que si on sait combien le promoteur d'un projet de metro depense pour sa construction et son fonctionnement, personne ne sait combien il coute a la collectivite. L'approche de la banque a fait prevaloir les aspects comptables et financiers, sur les economiques: la depense sur le cout. On s'est propose de porter le regard sur l'evaluation economique "ex-post" des couts internes d'un metro. On y a formule 2 hypotheses: (1) la notion de cout interne peut etre precisee par rapport a la notion depense, et elle peut etre mise en oeuvre, et (ii) les couts internes ne sont pas necessairement plus importants que les depenses. Par rapport a la premiere hypothese, on a precise aussi bien la notion cout que la notion depense, ainsi qu'une methode pragmatique permettant d'estimer les couts a partir des depenses; la mise en application de cette methode au metro de caracas a permis de montrer : (i) que les depenses d'investissements affichees etaient inferieures de 15% des couts d'investissements, le cout economique des equipements etait 41% superieur a la facture reglee par l'etat pour equiper le reseau, et (ii) que les depenses de fonctionnement depassaient de 10% les couts respectifs. Par rapport a la deuxieme hypothese, on a demontre qu'effectivement les couts internes ne sont pas necessairement plus importants que les depenses internes: les couts d'investissements depassaient de 15% les depenses, les depenses de personnel, energie et frais generaux depassaient leurs couts, tandis que les couts de maintenance etaient largement superieurs aux depenses.