Managing Change in the Postal and Delivery Industries, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1997 Topics in Regulatory Economics and Policy Series, Vol. 25

Managing Change in the Postal and Delivery Industries brings together practitioners, postal administrators, the express industry, regulators, economists and lawyers to examine the important policy and regulatory issues facing the postal and delivery industries. This volume reviews such topics as international postal policy, the universal service obligation, regulation and competition, entry and the role of scale and scope economics, cost analysis in postal services, and service standards. This book provides a unique perspective on the problems facing postal and delivery networks.

Theoretical Perspectives.- 1 Issues in Measuring Incremental Cost in a Multi-Function Enterprise.- 2 Cost and Benefits of Universal Service Obligations in the Postal Sector.- 3 Peak Loads and Postal Services: Some Implications of Multi-Stage Production.- 4 Scale Economies and Natural Monopoly in the Postal Delivery: Comparison Between Parametric and Non Parametric Specifications.- Empirical Perspectives.- 5 A Cross Sectional Comparison and Analysis of Productivity for 21 National Postal Administrations.- 6 A Measure of Scale Economies for Postal Systems.- 7 Demand Models for Letter Mail and Its Substitutes: Results from Finland.- 8 Changes in the Household-Level Demand for Postal Delivery Services from 1986 to 1994.- Legal and Institutional Perspectives.- 9 The UK Post Office Competition Law Compliance Program.- 10 Monopolies and European Community Competition Law: Current Problems.- 11 Liberalized Postal Markets: Finnish and Swedish Experiences.- Universal Service Obligation.- 12 Cost and Returns from Delivery to Sparsely Settled Rural Areas.- 13 The Universal Service Obligation for Post: Some Australian Calculations.- 14 The Challenge of Electronic Competition: Empirical Analysis of Substitution Effects on the Demand for Letter Services.- 15 Providing Universal Service in Competitive Postal Markets.- 16 The Cost of the Universal Postal Service in a Competitive Environment: Lessons from Telecommunications.- Policy Perspectives.- 17 The Roots of Deregulation: Why Aviation and Telecommunications But Not the Post Office?.- 18 The Future of the U.S. Postal Service: An Assessment of Options.- 19 The Structure Of Postal Markets.- 20 Competition And Rate Restructuring For Postal Services.- Postal Strategy.- 21 Competitor Access To The Postal Pipeline: The New Zealand Experience.- 22 Competition In Postal Markets: The German Direct Mail Market.- 23 Postal Services: Competition in the Netherlands— Current Situation.