Abstract
The 2nd European Postal Directive requires an assessment of the scope and sustainability of the universal service obligation (USO) under full market opening. The requirements for each of these, the scope of the USO and the market opening, as well as the incumbent’s sustainability under alternative scenarios may well differ across countries as a number of previous contributions to the postal debate have pointed out.1 Universal service is a set of measures aiming to grant permanently all users in all points of a territory a sufficient level of service. These obligations take the form of constraints, and apply to a range of products or services. They involve quality, in the broad sense, and price controls. The existence of obligations means that, in their absence, the market may not provide a sufficient level of service, or whole scope of products, or at least not at an affordable price level for all users. The loss of degree of freedom created by the existence of constraints creates an opportunity cost.
The view expressed in this paper are those of authors and do not necessarily reflects the views of La Poste. We would like to thank all the correspondents that answered our questionnaire and provided fruitful discussions: Margaret Arblaster, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission; Gerard Power, Canada Post Corporation; Gunnar de Gier Thornfeldt, Road Safety and Transport Agency; Pekka Leskinen, Finland Post Group; Marcella Mooren, DPAG; Peter Quander, RegTP; John Hearn, ComReg; Stephen Ferguson, An Post; Stefano Gori, Poste Italiane; Shoji Maruyama, Japan Post; Jeannette van der Hooft, TNT; Greg Harford, New Zealand Post; Kristin Bergum, Posten Norge; Ricardo Goulão Santos, CTT - Correios de Portugal, Rajko Jerenec, Agencija za pošto in elektronske komunikacije; Beatriz Galván Santiago, Correo y Telégrafos; Mathias Henricson, PTS; Sture Wallander, Posten AB; Daniel Krähenbühl, Swiss Post; Denise Bagge, Postcomm; Frank Rodriguez, Royal Mail; John D Waller, Postal Rate Commission.
See Crew and Kleindorfer (2005), Cohen et al. (2004), Bernard et al. (2002), and Gallet and Toledano (1997).
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Ambrosini, X., Boldron, F., Roy, B. (2006). Universal Service Obligations in the Postal Sector. In: Crew, M.A., Kleindorfer, P.R. (eds) Progress toward Liberalization of the Postal and Delivery Sector. Topics in Regulatory Economics and Policy, vol 49. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-29744-6_2
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