The paper analyzes the impact of different regulatory models on competition and welfare in the Swiss letter market. We conclude that the US system worksharing yields the best results.

In the past decades, several countries have introduced reverse auctions for allocating universal service or public mission subsidies in various industries. Examples include urban transport, air transport and telecommunications. Recently, such mechanisms have also been envisioned in liberalized...

Based on historical data from 1980 to 2004 the paper analyzes the main drivers of mail demand and the impact of e-substitution by using time-series techniques. We find strong evidence for e-substitution. In the second part of the paper we provide forecasts for future mail volumes.

In parallel with liberalization, sector-specific regulation in network industries has become a widely discussed topic among academics, policy makers, industry economists and regulators themselves. The issue of these debates has usually been on whether such regulation is necessary and if so what...