Ulrich Stumpf
Remailing in the European Community: Economic Analysis of Alternative Regulatory Environments
Nr. 89 / Mai 1992
(no longer available)
Summary
Remailing is at the heart of a controversial discussion on future postal policy in Europe. Remailing creates competition in cross-border letter services between postal administrations and private operators. It also generates competiton among postal administrations. This discussion paper deals with an economic analysis of alternative regulatory environments for remailing in the European Community. We compare the current environment, where remailing infringes upon national postal monopoly laws and contravenes the philosphy underlying the Universal Postal Union with a new environment which is likely to be proposed by the European Commission. The proposed environment may be characterized by free entry into collection and transportation of outward cross-border mail and non-discriminatory access to inward delivery networks of destinatory postal administrations. Properties of both regulatory environments with regard to price and quality of cross-border services are scrutinized. It is also shown why liberalization of remailing will create economic efficiency gains. The paper closes with an analysis of implementation problems to which the proposed system may give rise.
Discussion Paper is no longer available.