Regulation continues to be an important issue in the postal and delivery sector of the global economy. This latest volume of the series covers progress made in the competitive agenda in the industry. It is global in scope and addresses topics of great importance to scholars and practitioners of postal regulation and public sector economics.

Contents: Preface 1. Service Quality, Price Caps and the USO Under Entry Michael A. Crew and Paul R. Kleindorfer 2. Estimating the Impact of Price Regulation on Service Quality in Post Gregory Swinand, Sean Lyons, Michael O’Grady and David Murphy 3. Price and Quality of Service Regulation in Portugal João Castro and Agostinho Franco 4. Competition through Downstream Access in the UK Postal Sector: The First Four Years Paul Dudley, Stephen Agar, Leonardo Mautino and Felipe Flórez Duncan 5. A Dynamic and Endogenous Approach to Financing the USO in a Liberalized Environment François Boldron, Claire Borsenberger, Denis Joram, Sébastien Lécou and Bernard Roy 6. Postal Costing Beyond ABC: Estimating the Economic Cost of Mails Services Richard Robinson and Jane McMurdie 7. Costing Elements of the Universal Service Richard Bradley, Phil Burns and George Houpis 8. Calculating the Cost of the Universal Service Obligation: The Need for a Global Approach Christian Jaag, Martin Koller and Urs Trinkner 9. Cost Analysis and Pricing of Innovative Postal Products Louis F. O’Brien, Leon A. Pintsov and Andrei Obrea 10. Some Welfare and Pricing Implications of Alternative Regimes for Value-Added Taxation of Postal Services Philippe De Donder, Helmuth Cremer, Paul Dudley and Frank Rodriguez 11. Postal Price Elasticities and Intermedia Competition: A Multisided Market Approach Vincenzo Visco Comandini, Michael Lintell, Stefano Gori, Maria Rita Pierleoni and Bradley Tisdahl 12. Network Externalities and the USO: A Two-sided Market Approach François Boldron, Helmuth Cremer, Philippe De Donder, Denis Joram and Bernard Roy 13. Mail Order Businesses Demand: A Conceptual Approach Xavier Ambrosini, Sebastien Breville, Joël Cornee and Olaf Klargaard 14. Internet Advertising and Direct Mail: Trends and Analysis for the UK Soterios Soteri, Frédérique Fève, Jean-Pierre Florens and Frank Rodriguez 15. Using Operating Data to Measure Labor Input Variability and Density Economies in United States Postal Service Mail Processing Operations A. Thomas Bozzo 16. Do Differences in Facility-Specific Mail Processing Unit Costs Have Implications for the Cost of the Universal Service Obligation? Margaret Cigno, Diane Monaco and Matthew Robinson 17. The EU Postal Services and Public Procurement Law: Legal and Regulatory Issues for the Postal Sector Alessandra Fratini and Fabio Filpo 18. How Should Regulation be Adjusted when Universal Service Substitution Grows? Pekka Leskinen, Peter Karlsson, Heikki Nikali and Päivi Rokkanen 19. Market Entry and Competitive Strategies in the German B2B Parcel Market Helmut M. Dietl, Markus Lang, Martin Lutzenberger and Stephan M. Wagner 20. Bank of America, Mail, and the Environment Lawrence G. Buc and Peter A. Soyka 21. Innovation in Postal Products and Pricing: Opportunities and Obstacles in the Reform Era Robert A.F. Reisner, Maynard Benjamin and Derek Osborn 22. The IPO as a Driving Force in the Change Process Peter Koppe, Christian Bosch, Silke Hömstreit and Stefan Pohl Index