Current Directions in Postal Reform brings together leading practitioners, worldwide postal administrations, and the courier industry as well as a number of regulators, academic economists, mailers and lawyers, to examine some of the major policy and regulatory issues facing the postal and delivery industry. Issues addressed include international postal policy; the universal service obligation; regulation; competition, entry, and the role of scale and scope economies; the nature and role of cost analysis in the postal service; productivity; interaction of law and economics; and service standards.

Klappentext

Current Directions in Postal Reform brings together leading practitioners, worldwide postal administrations, and the courier industry as well as a number of regulators, academic economists, mailers and lawyers, to examine some of the major policy and regulatory issues facing the postal and delivery industry. Issues addressed include international postal policy; the universal service obligation; regulation; competition, entry, and the role of scale and scope economies; the nature and role of cost analysis in the postal service; productivity; interaction of law and economics; and service standards.

Inhalt
Content.- 1. Liberalization and the Universal Service Obligation in Postal Service.- 2. Measuring the Cost of Universal Service for Posts.- 3. The Cost of Universal Service in the Postal Sector.- 4. Universal Service without a Monopoly.- 5. Worksharing, Residential Delivery, and the Future of the USO.- 6. Liberalization of the Postal Market and the Cost of the Universal Service Obligation: Some Estimates for the UK.- 7. In France, Mail Goes Where the Money and Businesses Are.- 8. Cost Estimation and Economically Efficient Prices.- 9. Simulation Modeling for Cost Estimation.- 10. Postal ABC: What are the Reasonable Expectations?.- 11. The Demand for Targeted Communication in Different Customer Groups.- 12. Technical Efficiency in CTT-Correios de Portugal.- 13. Antitrust versus Regulation Issues in the Postal Sector: Lessons from the Italian Hybrid Mail Case.- 14. Defining Postal Markets: an Antitrust Perspective.- 15. An Introduction to EC Competition Rules in the Postal Sector.- 16. Liberalizing European Postal Markets: The Advantages Of Reducing The Weight/Price Threshold.- 17. Hiding in Plain Sight: The Quiet Liberalization of the United States Postal System.- 18. Access Pricing in the Postal Sector: Complexities and Practicalities of the United States Experience.- 19. Economic Effects of an Information-Rich Mailing System Including Work Sharing.- 20. Controlling Postal Retail Transaction Costs and Improving Customer Access to Postal Products.- 21. Long-term Business Relationships between Consignor and Trucking Carrier in Japan.- 22. Strategy And The Posts: the Case of the USPS.- 23. The Current and Future Use of Mergers, Acquisitions, Joint Ventures, and Strategic Alliances in the European Postal Industry.- 24. Globalization, Posts, and the Universal Postal Union: aFunctional Critique.