Postal and Delivery Services Delivering on Competition

Postal and Delivery Services: Delivering on Competition is an indispensable source of information and analysis on the current state of the postal and delivery sector. It offers current insight into strategy, regulation as well as the economics of this sector. Issues addressed include international postal policy, the universal service obligation, regulation, competition, entry, the role of scale and scope economies, the nature and role of cost and demand analysis in postal service, productivity, interaction of law and economics, human resources, transition and reform issues.

Liberalization and the Universal Service Obligation.- 1. Balancing Access and the Universal Service Obligation.- 2. Pricing and Worksharing Discounts in the Postal Sector.- 3. Access Pricing and Parcels Delivery.- 4. Brand Loyalty and Limited Entry in Postal Markets.- 5. Reconciling Competition, Downstream Access, and Universal Service in Postal Markets.- Demand, Cost, and Productivity.- 6. Econometrics of Mail Demand: A Comparison between Cross-section and Dynamic Data.- 7. The Productivity Analysis of Postal Services: A Global Comparison of Technical Efficiency and Total Factor Productivity.- 8. On the Output Elasticity of the Activities of Post Office Counters in Italy.- 9. Delivery Cost Heterogeneity and Vulnerability to Entry.- Strategy and Human Resources.- 10. Is the Customer Always Right? Customer Relations and Postal Reform.- 11. Employee Stock Ownership as a Human Capital Strategy for the United States Postal Service.- 12. Homeland Security Brings Ratepayer vs. Taxpayer To Center Stage.- 13. U.S. Postal Service Collective Bargaining: Is the Grass Greener on the Other Side of Interest Arbitration?.- International Postal Policy.- 14. Exit, Voice and Postal Performance in Developing Countries.- 15. Extra-Territorial Offices of Exchange, the USO and International Trade: a Problem and a Solution.- 16. Extraterritorial Offices of Exchange: Examining New Forms of Competition under the UPU Umbrella.- Transition and Reform Issues.- 17. Transformation at Deutsche Post World Net using the Example of Socially Compatible Workforce Adjustment.- 18. The Cookie Jar Dilemma: Why the Principles Embedded in the European Postal Legislation will continue to Create Problems.- 19. The New Directive on the Further Liberalization of Postal Markets in Europe.- 20. Market Results of Postal Reform in Germany: Current Trends.