Competition and Innovation in Postal Services

✍ Scribed by Michael A. Crew, Paul R. Kleindorfer (auth.), Michael A. Crew, Paul R. Kleindorfer (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer US
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 293
• Series: Topics in Regulatory Economics and Policy Series 8
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Any Chainnan of the British Post Office dwells in the shadow of Rowland Hill, and, if he were an honest man, he probably from time to time, while singing the praises of Rowland Hill, as is his due, thinks a silent thought of sympathy for his predecessor Colonel Maberly, the head of the Post Office, the Champion of established orthodoxy, the leader of the Professionals, who had to endure the irresistible force of Hill's arguments combined with his skills as a pamphleteer, agitator, and political propagandist. My favorite passage of the book Royal Mail by Martin Daunton (1985) shows how much the Post Office of the day needed a Rowland Hill to challenge Colonel Maberly and all that he stood for. I quote from a passage describing how the Colonel, when he arrived at about 11:00 a.m. and while enjoying his breakfast, listened to his private secretary reading the morning's correspondence. Daunton records: The Colonel, still half engaged with his private correspondence, would hear enough to make him keep up a rumring commentary of disparaging grunts, "Pooh! stuff! upon my soul!" etc.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xviii
Rowland Hill’s Contribution as an Economist....Pages 1-16
INTERNATIONAL POSTAL REFORM: An Application of the Principles of Rowland Hill to the International Postal System....Pages 17-36
Peak-Load Pricing of Postal Service and Competition....Pages 37-60
Assessing the Welfare Effects of Entry into Letter Delivery....Pages 61-91
Delivering Letters: Should it be Decriminalized?....Pages 93-113
A Comparative Analysis of Wage Premiums and Industrial Relations in the British Post Office and the United States Postal Service....Pages 115-140
Productivity and Cost Measurement for the United States Postal Service: Variations Among Regions....Pages 141-175
Postal Newspaper Delivery and Diversity of Opinions....Pages 177-190
Competition in Postal Service....Pages 191-218
Is Postal Service a Natural Monopoly?....Pages 219-231
Postal Rate-Making Procedures and Outcomes in Various Countries....Pages 233-252
Postal Service and Less Developed Countries....Pages 253-273
Competitive Strategy for New Zealand Post....Pages 275-285

✦ Subjects

Industrial Organization; Public Finance & Economics; Management/Business for Professionals