Competitive Transformation of the Postal and Delivery Sector is an indispensable source of information and analysis on the current state of the postal and delivery sector. It offers current insights of leading researchers and practitioners into strategy and regulation as well as the economics of this sector. Issues addressed include national and international perspectives, financial viability, the universal service obligation, regulation, competition, entry, the role of scale and scope economies, the nature and role of cost and demand analysis in postal service, productivity,...

1. THE PROBLEM OF CATASTROPHE RISK The risk of large losses from natural disasters in the U.S. has significantly increased in recent years, straining private insurance markets and creating troublesome problems for disaster-prone areas. The threat of mega-catastrophes resulting from intense hurricanes or earthquakes striking major population centers has dramatically altered the insurance environment. Estimates of probable maximum losses (PMLs) to insurers from a mega- catastrophe striking the U.S. range up to $100 billion depending on the location and intensity of the event (Applied Insurance...

Future Directions in Postal Reform brings together leading practitioners, world-wide postal administrations, and the courier industry, as well as a number of regulators, academic economists, mailers, and lawyers, to examine some of the major policy and regulatory issues facing the postal and delivery industry. Issues addressed include international postal policy; the universal service obligation; regulation; competition, entry, and the role of scale and scope economies; the nature and role of cost analysis in postal service; productivity; interaction of law and economics; and future...

Managing Change in the Postal and Delivery Industries brings together practitioners, postal administrators, the express industry, regulators, economists and lawyers to examine the important policy and regulatory issues facing the postal and delivery industries. This volume reviews such topics as international postal policy, the universal service obligation, regulation and competition, entry and the role of scale and scope economics, cost analysis in postal services, and service standards. This book provides a unique perspective on the problems facing postal and delivery networks.

This volume is concerned with the nature of new manufacturing technologies, such as CAD/CAM and robotics, as well as ap propriate methodologies for evaluating whether such technologies are financially and organizationally viable in particular contexts. The chapters included here were commissioned as papers for presen tation at The Wharton Conference on Productivity, Technology, and Organizational Innovation, which took place in Philadelphia on December 8 and 9 of 1983. The conference was sponsored by The University of Pennsylvania's Center for the Study of Organizational Innovation. There has...

Worldwide, there is considerable interest in postal and delivery economics. Governments, particularly in the European Union, are examining closely the roles of the two systems and how best to regulate them. This volume brings together 20 essays originally presented at the 12th Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics held in Cork, Ireland in June 2004. Contributors include researchers, practitioners, and senior managers from throughout the world.