Postal regulators set price controls in order to simultaneously ensure the provision of the universal service, promote competition and equity. We study the associated price control procedures in a model where the universal service provider offers both a single piece product and a business mail...

The European Commission has produced precise rules governing the computation of the cost of services of general economic interest (SGEI). The Commission has adopted a fully distributed cost approach where the SGEI can bear a "reasonable" share of the common cost. We highlight a possible...

This paper investigates conditions that generate the so-called "waterbed" effect under price regulation. This is the effect whereby regulation of one price of a multiproduct firm causes one or more of its unregulated prices to change as a result of the firm's profit-maximizing behavior. A...

The purpose of this paper is to compare price and capacity competition in simple serial and parallel transport networks, where individual links are operated by different authorities. We find more tax exporting in serial transport corridors than on parallel road networks. The inability to toll...

Does the European model of end-to-end competition or the US model of worksharing provide stronger innovation incentives for incumbent postal operators? We answer this question based on a two stage model with price competition and product differentiation. We find that incentives for process...

In Germany, competitive franchising is increasingly being used to procure passenger railway services that were previously provided by a state monopolist. This paper analyzes 77 tenders that differ with respect to network size, service frequency, contract duration and the proximity to other lines...

We describe a pair of empirical tests that can be used to evaluate the technological feasibility of separating a vertically integrated network monopoly into a common infrastructure component and competing operating components. We implement the tests with a Generalized McFadden cost function that...

This paper deals with an analysis of the efficiency of delivery post offices from an estimated cost frontier. Our focus is to apply a robust non parametric approach for the cost frontier estimation, called the order-m frontier, based on the concept of "expected minimum cost" and to extend it to...

Suppose a multi-national agency can set minimum standards for the postal USO that apply to the countries under its jurisdiction, and that each country is required to comply with, or exceed, these standards. We examine the trade-offs that ensue across countries in designing an efficient USO at...

The aim of this paper is to examine the feasibility of identifying an appropriate rail scarcity charge which would make operators pay for their use of rail capacity in line with the opportunity cost of the use of these slots and to give some idea of the likely effects of such charges. The way in...