Future Directions in Postal Reform brings together leading practitioners, world-wide 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 postal service; productivity; interaction of law and economics; and future technologies and service standards.

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Difficulties of Deregulation When Wage Costs are the Major Cost.- 2. Estimation of the Potential Impact of Cross-Border Liberalization.- 3. A Critique of the Theory of Incentive Regulation.- 4. Preparing the Postal Service's Rate Structures for Competition.- 5. Regulatory and Governance Changes in Liberalized, Commercialized Postal Environments.- 6. Funding Universal Service Obligations: The Costs of Liberalization.- 7. Whither the USO under Competitive Entry: A Microstructure Approach.- 8. Uniform Pricing and Postal Market Liberalization.- 9. The Role of the Monopoly Product in the Cost of Universal Service.- 10. The Regulatory Framework for Postal Markets in Germany.- 11. An Analysis of Some Specific Cost Drivers in the Delivery Activity.- 12. Mail Use by Firms.- 13. The Demand for Direct Mail in Portugal.- 14. Postal Profits Arise where People Are.- 15. Reforming the Universal Postal Union.- 16. Reform in the Universal Postal Union and the World Trade Organization.- 17. GATS and the Postal Sector: The Next Round of Negotiations.- 18. The Significance of the Microsoft Antitrust Litigation for Postal Services Operators.- 19. Market Definition in EC Competition Law concerning Postal Services.- 20. Lifetime Addresses: A New Postal Paradigm for the 21st Century.- 21. Legislation Relating to Electronic Web Commerce Created at the European Union Level.