Heightening Competition in the Postal and Delivery Sector (Google eBook)

Michael A. Crew, Paul R. Kleindorfer

Edward Elgar Publishing, Jan 1, 2010 - Political Science - 416 pages

This compilation of original essays by an international cast of top scholars addresses some of the major issues now facing postal and delivery services throughout the world. The European Commission and member states wrestle with the problem of how to implement the scheduled liberalization of these sectors and maintain the universal service obligation while the United States Postal Service is coming to terms with the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. In addition, the book addresses the impact of electronic competition as well as other problems facing the field. The contributors analyze pressing issues such as access to infrastructure and service elements, changes in the national regulations of EU countries, forecasting mail volumes and the evolving market environment, issues surrounding universal service and others. Undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers in regulation and public sector economics along with industry professionals will find this volume informative and useful.

Contents

• 1 Access and the USO under full market opening: 1
• 2 Access to infrastructure and service elements in the postal sector: 22
• 3 National regulation of postal services under the 2008 EU Postal Services Directive: 38
• the contribution of the Guidance Paper on Article 82 EC: 53
• 5 The Altmark ruling and approaches to measuring efficiency of postal operators: 70
• the French experience: 85
• the French case: 99
• 8 Forecasting mail volumes in an evolving market environment: 116
• 9 The eff ect of falling volumes on traditional efficiency analysis: 135
• 10 Economies of scale and scope and opening hours in post offices and agencies: 149
• 11 Welfare and profi t implications for changesin service specifi cation within the universalservice: 161
• 12 An operational measure of the cost of universal service as crosssubsidy: 181
• the case of the United States Postal Service: 204
• 14 Funding the cost of universal service in a liberalized postal sector: 220
• 15 Crosscountry comparisons of optimal mail delivery frequency: 235
• 16 The cost of the USO in the United States: 253
• 17 Universal service auctions in liberalized postal markets: 263
• collaboration between United States Postal Service and UPS: 278
• 19 Customer satisfaction models for Itellas business customers: 295
• 20 Postal product innovation using EPPML: 307
• initial life cycle inventory model and analysis: 323
• an experimental approach: 338
• a practical approach: 355
• 24 Historical development of a Universal Service Obligation in the United States: 372

Bibliographic information

• Title: Heightening Competition in the Postal and Delivery Sector; Advances in Regulatory Economics Series
• Editors: Michael A. Crew, Paul R. Kleindorfer
• Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010
• ISBN: 1849803250, 9781849803250
• Length: 416 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Commerce; Business & Economics / Distribution; Political Science / Public Affairs & Administration