IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ses/arsjes/2008-i-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effect of Entry Regulation on Process Innovation in the Swiss Mail Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Helmut M. Dietl
  • Andreas Grütter
  • Martin Lutzenberger
  • Catia Felisberto
  • Matthias Finger

Abstract

We develop an industry specific model of price competition with product differentiation to analyze the effect of entry regulation on process innovation in the Swiss mail industry. We consider the four most prominent scenarios: regulated monopoly, end-to-end competition, worksharing without bypass, and worksharing with bypass. Based on model calibration with data from the Swiss letter market, we find that the incentives to invest in process innovation decrease with deregulation. However, even accounting for this fact, the efficiency gains from partial liberalization, i.e. worksharing, ensure an increase in social welfare.

Suggested Citation

  • Helmut M. Dietl & Andreas Grütter & Martin Lutzenberger & Catia Felisberto & Matthias Finger, 2008. "The Effect of Entry Regulation on Process Innovation in the Swiss Mail Industry," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 144(I), pages 37-55, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:ses:arsjes:2008-i-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sjes.ch/papers/2008-I-2.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jan Boone, 2000. "Competitive Pressure: The Effects on Investments in Product and Process Innovation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 31(3), pages 549-569, Autumn.
    2. Billette de Villemeur, Etienne & Cremer, Helmuth & Roy, Bernard & Toledano, Joëlle, 2003. "Optimal Pricing and Price-Cap Regulation in the Postal Sector," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 49-62, July.
    3. Ronald R. Braeutigam & John C. Panzar, 1989. "Diversification Incentives under "Price-Based" and "Cost-Based" Regulation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 20(3), pages 373-391, Autumn.
    4. Cazals, Catherine & Florens, Jean-Pierre & Rouzaud, Séverine & de Rycke, Marc, 1996. "Scale Economies and Natural Monopoly in the Postal Delivery : Comparison between Parametric and Non Parametric Specifications," IDEI Working Papers 58, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    5. Martin Neil Baily & Hans Gersbach, 1995. "Efficiency in Manufacturing and the Need for Global Competition," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 26(1995 Micr), pages 307-358.
    6. Helmut M. Dietl & Urs Trinkner & Reto Bleisch, 2005. "Liberalization and Regulation of the Swiss Letter Market," Topics in Regulatory Economics and Policy, in: Michael A. Crew & Paul R. Kleindorfer (ed.), Regulatory and Economic Challenges in the Postal and Delivery Sector, chapter 0, pages 53-72, Springer.
    7. Blundell, Richard & Griffith, Rachel & Van Reenen, John, 1995. "Dynamic Count Data Models of Technological Innovation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 105(429), pages 333-344, March.
    8. Martin Stephen, 1993. "Endogenous Firm Efficiency in a Cournot Principal-Agent Model," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 445-450, April.
    9. Philippe Donder & Helmuth Cremer & Frank Rodriguez, 2005. "Access Pricing in the Postal Sector," Topics in Regulatory Economics and Policy, in: Michael A. Crew & Paul R. Kleindorfer (ed.), Regulatory and Economic Challenges in the Postal and Delivery Sector, chapter 0, pages 163-187, Springer.
    10. Kenneth Arrow, 1962. "Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention," NBER Chapters, in: The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity: Economic and Social Factors, pages 609-626, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Nickell, Stephen J, 1996. "Competition and Corporate Performance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(4), pages 724-746, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Helmut M. Dietl & Urs Trinkner, 2008. "Developing Universal Postal Services in Latin America ? an Economic Perspective," Working Papers 0012, Swiss Economics, revised Nov 2008.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xavier Vives, 2008. "Innovation And Competitive Pressure," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 419-469, December.
    2. Giuseppe Nicoletti & Stefano Scarpetta, 2003. "Regulation, productivity and growth: OECD evidence [‘A model of growth through creative destruction’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 18(36), pages 9-72.
    3. Andrei Barbos, 2015. "Information Acquisition and Innovation under Competitive Pressure," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 325-347, June.
    4. Cátia Felisberto, 2012. "The Relationship Between Competition and Incumbent’s Innovation," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 21-46, March.
    5. Yosuke Okada, 2005. "Competition and Productivity in Japanese Manufacturing Industries," NBER Working Papers 11540, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Brouwer, E. & van der Wiel, H.P., 2010. "Competition and Innovation : Pushing Productivity Up or Down?," Discussion Paper 2010-52, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    7. Okada, Yosuke, 2005. "Competition and productivity in Japanese manufacturing industries," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 586-616, December.
    8. Brouwer, E. & van der Wiel, H.P., 2010. "Competition and Innovation : Pushing Productivity Up or Down?," Other publications TiSEM 9efe62df-d940-4471-8bc7-e, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    9. Richard Gilbert, 2006. "Looking for Mr. Schumpeter: Where Are We in the Competition-Innovation Debate?," NBER Chapters, in: Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 6, pages 159-215, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Lee, Chang-Yang, 2009. "Competition favors the prepared firm: Firms' R&D responses to competitive market pressure," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 861-870, June.
    11. Peter Howitt, 2007. "Innovation, Competition and Growth: A Schumpeterian Perspective on Canada’s Economy," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 246, February.
    12. Pilar BeneitoBy & María Engracia Rochina-Barrachina & Amparo Sanchis, 2017. "Competition and innovation with selective exit: an inverted-U shape relationship?," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 69(4), pages 1032-1053.
    13. Ryo Horii & Tatsuro Iwaisako, 2007. "Economic Growth with Imperfect Protection of Intellectual Property Rights," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 90(1), pages 45-85, January.
    14. Nickell, Stephen, 1999. "Product markets and labour markets1," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 1-20, March.
    15. Ramiro de Elejalde & Carlos Ponce & Flavia Roldán, 2018. "Innovation and competition: evidence from Uruguayan firms," Documentos de Investigación 116, Universidad ORT Uruguay. Facultad de Administración y Ciencias Sociales.
    16. Cátia Felisberto, 2013. "Liberalisation, competition and innovation in the postal sector," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 1407-1434, June.
    17. Yuriy Gorodnichenko & Jan Svejnar & Katherine Terrell, 2010. "Globalization and Innovation in Emerging Markets," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(2), pages 194-226, April.
    18. Tishler, Asher & Milstein, Irena, 2009. "R&D wars and the effects of innovation on the success and survivability of firms in oligopoly markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 519-531, July.
    19. Schmidt, Klaus M. & Fey, Lisa & Thoma, Carmen, 2017. "Competition and incentives," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 111-125.
    20. Carl Shapiro, 2011. "Competition and Innovation: Did Arrow Hit the Bull's Eye?," NBER Chapters, in: The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity Revisited, pages 361-404, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    end-to-end competition; entry regulation; mail industry; process innovation; worksharing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • L87 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Postal and Delivery Services

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ses:arsjes:2008-i-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kurt Schmidheiny (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sgvssea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.