Productivity at the post: its drivers and its distribution

2011

All postal operators have been for 10 or 20 years engaged in a transformation movement of their post office network. This movement is often characterized by a double trend: a reduction in the size of the network and an increase in the number of partnerships, replacing owned post offices. The objective of such movement is to optimize postal networks in a context of decreasing volume of mail and market liberalization. Due to mail volume decline, infrastructures become larger than necessary and to address competition issues, postal operators are engaged in efforts to modernize their retail networks and adapted them to customers’ needs.

Social Science Research Network, 1999

The postal sector remained, until recently, relatively untouched by the waves of regulatory reform that have transformed public utility industries. At the time of the roundtable (1999), postal services in most OECD countries were provided by monopoly operators, some still organised as government departments or ministries. Incumbent operators are threatened by competition from electronic communications networks and from express mail and package carriers. The analytical note addresses how to introduce competition. Which segments of the postal sector are competitive? How can competition be encouraged in those segments? Is competition compatible with the preservation of universal service obligations? What other policy actions are necessary to ensure the development of effective competition? Most postal operators have been state-owned and protected from competition. A primary concern has thus been preventing incumbent operators from using the funds from their protected services or from the state to subsidise, distort or prevent competition in competitive segments. Policy action such as privatisation and liberalisation limit the ability of the incumbent operator to cross-subsidise.

From 2011 onwards the last remaining barriers to competition in most European postal markets will be eliminated. Supporters of liberalization and privatization have argued that competition and private ownership will induce service providers to improve efficiency. And greater efficiency will benefit service users as services will become cheaper and of better quality. This article challenges the view that liberalization and privatization unanimously enhance efficiency and quality and equally benefit all service users. Based on a series of company studies, it argues that liberalization and privatization in the European postal sectors had mixed effects with respect to efficiency and quality and mostly negative effects for employment and working conditions. It furthermore questions the idea that the changes have equally benefited all users. Actually, liberalization and privatization have fuelled diversification and fragmentation, producing winners and losers from the restructuring processes.

Empirical Economics, 2012

This paper empirically assesses the effect of liberalisation and competition on innovation in the postal sector. The analysis is restricted to end-to-end competition. The effect on the incentives to innovate of letter volume, public ownership and other control variables is also tested. Data on liberalisation, competition and innovation in the postal sector is collected for seventeen European countries over eleven years. Three measures are used as proxies for innovation: (1) an innovation index based on a survey conducted for this purpose; (2) the accumulated number of innovations (based on the same survey); and (3) labour productivity. We also develop a liberalisation index to measure the percentage of market liberalised (in terms of letter volume). Several models are estimated by GLS. In general, the models estimated have a high explanatory power. We find evidence that market liberalisation has a positive effect on innovation and that an increase in the market share of the competitors stimulates the investment in innovation, at least until the market share of the competitors reaches a certain threshold. Letter volume is also significant and has a positive impact on innovation. GDP per capita turns out to be significant and has a positive relationship with innovation in all the models estimated.

2011

This is the second of three volumes on the future of the postal industry, in which we have asked over 70 thoughts leaders and industry experts for their vision of how the industry is changing.

Labor Studies Journal, 2017

The United States Postal Service (USPS), the second largest employer of civilians in the United States, has been the focus of attempts to restructure the workforce and privatize its activities. The four unions which represent those employed by the USPS have been working together to resist these efforts. Recently, results of arbitration and proposed legislation have given some reason for optimism. The rate of union density within the postal service as well as the potential for private-sector profit making, however, means that it is likely that such struggles will continue.

The Contribution of the Postal and Delivery Sector, 2018

Research in Labor Economics, 1999

The directive of the Postal Reorganization Act is to maintain compensation similar to that awarded for comparable levels of work in the private sector. This paper examines a wide array of recent evidence to assess the comparability of postal and private sector compensation. The evidence points to a substantial postal premium. Cross-sectional analysis controlling for worker characteristics indicates that bargaining unit postal employees receive wages 28% higher than similar private sector workers. A premium estimate of 34% is obtained following an accounting for occupational skill requirements and working conditions, while inclusion of fringe benefits increases further the size of the premium. Longitudinal evidence from the Postal New Hire Survey, matched CPS panels, and Displaced Worker Surveys indicate wage gains of 30%-40% among postal entrants. Data on quit rates and applicant queues reinforce the conclusion that postal workers receive substantial rents. We explore in depth methodological issues, with particular attention given to the choice of the comparison group with whom postal workers are most directly compared. Many of the issues analyzed here have general applicability to studies of wage comparability.

Revista de Derecho Económico

New Business and Regulatory Strategies in the Postal Sector, 2018