Protecting Competition from the Postal Monopoly

Protecting Competition from the Postal Monopoly
Author: J. Gregory Sidak
Publisher: A E I Press
Total Pages: 195
Release: 1996
Genre: Government business enterprises
ISBN: 9780844739502

The Private Express Statutes protect the U.S. Postal Service from competition in the delivery of letter mail. In contrast, few if any corresponding rules protect competition in other areas from the federal government's postal monopoly. Not only are the Postal Service's competitive activities arguably unrestricted by any explicit application of antitrust law, but public ownership and control exempt the Postal Service's actions from the corporate governance that is characteristic of private enterprises. The Postal Service can take advantage of its autonomy and protected letter mail monopoly to subsidize its entry and expansion in competitive markets, such as parcel post and express mail. That raises a fundamental issue: whether Congress's grant of a monopoly to the Postal Service over the delivery of letter mail should be used to restrict or supplant private commerce in other markets. In this book J. Gregory Sidak and Daniel F. Spulber examine the justifications for the publicly protected postal monopoly and its public ownership and control. On the basis of their economic and legal analysis, the authors demonstrate the need to prevent extension of the postal monopoly into competitive markets.

Competing with the Government: Anti-Competitive Behavior and Public Enterprises

Competing with the Government: Anti-Competitive Behavior and Public Enterprises
Author:
Publisher: Hoover Press
Total Pages: 140
Release:
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780817939939

"Examining a variety of instances in which government and private firms compete - including freight carriage, electric utilities, financial services, and others - the authors raise fundamental questions about the proper relationship between business and government in a market economy and underline the need for significant policy change regarding competition between government and private firms."--Jacket.

Multi-Modal Competition and the Future of Mail

Multi-Modal Competition and the Future of Mail
Author: Michael A. Crew
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2012
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0857935828

This compilation of original papers selected from the 19th Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics and authored by an international cast of economists, lawyers, regulators and industry practitioners addresses perhaps the major problem that has ever faced the postal sector – electronic competition from information and communication technologies (ICT). This has increased significantly over the last few years with a consequent serious drop in mail volume. All postal services have been hard hit by ICT, but probably the hardest hit is the United States Postal Service, which has lost almost a quarter of its mail volume since 2007. The loss of mail volume has a devastating effect on scale economies, which now work against post offices, forcing up their unit costs. Strategies to stem the loss in volume include non-linear pricing or volume discounts, increased efficiency and the development of new products. This loss of mail volume from ICT is one of a number of current problems addressed in this volume. The Universal Service Obligation (USO) continues to be a leading issue and concern that ICT undermines postal services' ability to finance the USO is discussed. The importance of measuring and forecasting demand and costs take on even greater importance as ICT undermines the foundations of the postal business. This thought provoking book brings to bear new analyses of the most serious threat post offices have ever faced and raises fundamental questions as to the future of mail. Multi-Modal Competition and the Future of Mail is an ideal resource for students, researchers in regulation and competition law, postal administrations, policy makers, consulting firms and regulatory bodies.

Megaregulation Contested

Megaregulation Contested
Author: Benedict Kingsbury
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 753
Release: 2019-06-06
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0192559087

The Japan-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPPA) of 2018 is the most far-reaching 'megaregional' economic agreement in force, with several major countries beyond its eleven negotiating countries also interested. Still bearing the stamp of the original US involvement before the Trump-era reversal, TPP is the first instance of 'megaregulation': a demanding combination of inter-state economic ordering and national regulatory governance on a highly ambitious substantive and trans-regional scale. Its text and ambition have influenced other negotiations ranging from the Japan-EU Agreement (JEEPA) and the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to the projected Pan-Asian Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). This book provides an extensive analysis of TPP as a megaregulatory project for channelling and managing new pressures of globalization, and of core critical arguments made against economic megaregulation from standpoints of development, inequality, labour rights, environmental interests, corporate capture, and elite governance. Specialized chapters cover supply chains, digital economy, trade facilitation, intellectual property, currency levels, competition and state-owned enterprises, government procurement, investment, prescriptions for national regulation, and the TPP institutions. Country studies include detailed analyses of TPP-related politics and approaches in Japan, Mexico, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, and Thailand. Contributors include leading practitioners and scholars in law, economics, and political science. At a time when the WTO and other global-scale institutions are struggling with economic nationalism and geopolitics, and bilateral and regional agreements are pressed by public disagreement and incompatibility with digital and capital and value chain flows, the megaregional ambition of TPP is increasingly important as a precedent requiring the close scrutiny this book presents.

Accounting for Laws That Apply Differently to the United States Postal Service and Its Private Competitors

Accounting for Laws That Apply Differently to the United States Postal Service and Its Private Competitors
Author: James C. Cooper
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
Total Pages: 118
Release: 2010
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1437916961

The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) of 2006 required the FTC to submit a ¿comprehensive report identifying the fed. and State laws that apply differently to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) with respect to the competitive category of mail and to private co. providing similar products¿; and to include recommend. This report identifies, and quantifies to the extent possible, the USPS¿s economic burdens and advantages that exist by virtue of its status as a fed. gov¿t. entity and its postal and mailbox monopolies. It also accounts for the ¿net economic effect¿ of the relevant laws by examining the compounded marketplace impacts, or ¿distortions,¿ that they bring about. It also explores potential means for minimizing or eliminating these distortions.