The Changing Postal Environment: Market and Policy Innovation

This book addresses major issues facing postal and delivery services throughout the world. Worldwide, there is currently a considerable amount of interest in postal and delivery economics. The industry is reacting to a state of near crisis and is implementing different drastic changes. The European Commission and member States are still wrestling with the problem of how to implement entry liberalization into postal markets, how to address digital competition, and how to maintain the Universal Service Obligation (USO).

Digitalization, technological development and online platforms are strongly affecting both the way postal and delivery operators are managing their services, as well as their role on the market. Strong emphasis was attributed to the assets of Postal Operators (POs) and their added value in the digital age, as well as on new business strategies. 

This volume presents original essays by prominent researchers in the field, selected and edited from papers presented at the 27th Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics held in Dublin, Ireland, 22-25 May, 2019. Topics addressed by this volume include the fragmentation of the postal supply chain, blockchain and digital postal services, and the fading of traditional postal market boundaries. This book will be a useful tool not only for graduate students and professors, but also for postal administrations, consulting firms, and federal government departments.

Pier Luigi Parcu is part-time Professor at the European University Institute (Italy) and Area Director of the Florence School of Regulation Communications & Media. He is Director of the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom and Director of the Florence Competition Program in Law and Economics. His research in the area of industrial organization and law and economics focuses on the interaction between regulation and antitrust in shaping firms’ behavior. 

Timothy J. Brennan is professor of public policy and economics at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (US). He has published over 135 articles and book chapters, principally on antitrust and regulatory economics, including the electricity, telecommunications, postal, oil pipeline, and other infrastructure sectors. He also has a strong interest in the nexus between economics and philosophy, which he has applied to questions such as the ethics of discount rates and the role of consumer error in designing energy policy. 

Victor Glass is a professor of professional practice in the finance and economics department at Rutgers Business School (New Jersey, US). He is the director of the Center for Research in Regulated Industries. For almost thirty years, he was responsible for forecasting demand and setting access rates for more than 1100 telephone companies and was heavily involved in regulatory reform. He has published studies of market and regulatory issues that have appeared in academic journals and trade magazines.