IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ide/wpaper/32659.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The impact of increasing competition for non-contract parcels on postal prices and efficiency decisions

Author

Listed:
  • De Donder, Philippe
  • Rodriguez, Frank
  • Soteri, Soterios

Abstract

The increase in e-commerce and demand for parcels has provided universal postal operators (USPs) with an opportunity to counter-balance, to some extent, declining letter volumes. However, as parcel markets have expanded this has exposed some USPs to increasing competition in the single-piece parcel traffic segment in which historically they have tended to dominate. This chapter develops and calibrates a theoretical model to assess postal USPs’ finances resulting from the trade-offs they face between efficiency gains and pricing, when operating in such an environment within a regulatory framework. Our results indicate that increasing competition in the parcel market can create added uncertainty and may require higher letter price caps to allow the USP to break even. Sensitivity analysis shows that external shocks can have a substantial impact on the USP’s financial position and fixed pre-determined price caps can impose a significant constraint on the USP’s ability to achieve a normal rate of return.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)<
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • De Donder, Philippe & Rodriguez, Frank & Soteri, Soterios, 2018. "The impact of increasing competition for non-contract parcels on postal prices and efficiency decisions," IDEI Working Papers 886, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    • Handle: RePEc:ide:wpaper:32659
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://idei.fr/sites/default/files/IDEI/documents/wp/2018/wp_idei_886.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Philippe Donder & Frank Rodriguez & Soterios Soteri, 2018. "Pricing and Efficiency Decisions for Letter and Parcel Markets When Industrial Relations Matter," Topics in Regulatory Economics and Policy, in: Pier Luigi Parcu & Timothy Brennan & Victor Glass (ed.), The Contribution of the Postal and Delivery Sector, pages 241-255, Springer.
    2. Michael Crew & Timothy J. Brennan (ed.), 2016. "The Future of the Postal Sector in a Digital World," Topics in Regulatory Economics and Policy, Springer, number 978-3-319-24454-9, June.
    3. Pier Luigi Parcu & Timothy Brennan & Victor Glass (ed.), 2018. "The Contribution of the Postal and Delivery Sector," Topics in Regulatory Economics and Policy, Springer, number 978-3-319-70672-6, June.
    4. Timothy J. Brennan & Michael A. Crew, 2016. "Price Cap Regulation and Declining Demand," Topics in Regulatory Economics and Policy, in: Michael Crew & Timothy J. Brennan (ed.), The Future of the Postal Sector in a Digital World, pages 1-17, Springer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Christopher Decker, 2016. "Regulating networks in decline," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 344-370, June.
    2. David E. M. Sappington & Dennis L. Weisman, 2016. "The disparate adoption of price cap regulation in the U.S. telecommunications and electricity sectors," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 250-264, April.
    3. Borsenberger, Claire & Cremer, Helmuth & Joram, Denis & Lozachmeur, Jean-Marie, 2016. "Pricing of delivery services and the emergence of marketplace platforms," TSE Working Papers 16-686, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    4. Brennan, Tim, 2023. "The Persistence of Volumetric Pricing," RFF Working Paper Series 23-40, Resources for the Future.
    5. Christian Jaag & Matthias Finger, 2017. "What future for the post office network?," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, , vol. 18(3-4), pages 153-174, September.
    6. Sandra Eckert, 2018. "Two spheres of regulation: Balancing social and economic goals," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(2), pages 177-191, June.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ide:wpaper:32659. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/idtlsfr.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.