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Challenges of Regulating Quality of Service in the Postal Industry

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New Business and Regulatory Strategies in the Postal Sector

Abstract

Quality of service (QoS) is one of several regulatory objectives that authorities oversee. The EU Postal Directive, on the issue states: “Member States shall ensure that quality of service standards are set and published in relation to universal service in order to guarantee a postal service of good quality”. Subsidiarity is key, since the specification of domestic QoS regulation is left to individual countries.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See for example Valletti (2000) and Cremer, De Rycke, and Grimaud (1997).

  2. 2.

    For an overview of recent literature on market preferences and needs see e.g. Zurel (2016) and ERGP (2016a).

  3. 3.

    See e.g. Spence (1975).

  4. 4.

    See e.g. Leland (1979), Besanko, Donnenfeld, and White (1987, 1988), and Kluger (1989).

  5. 5.

    Laffont and Tirole (1993, p. 213).

  6. 6.

    Laffont and Tirole (2001, p. 88) and Laffont and Tirole (1993, pp. 210–231).

  7. 7.

    Valletti et al. (2002).

  8. 8.

    Calzada (2008).

  9. 9.

    Calzada (2008) notes that because the entrant is more likely to undersupply quality, it is only welfare enhancing to impose a minimum quality regulation on the entrant.

  10. 10.

    WIK (2013, p. 211).

  11. 11.

    Swindand and Scully (2006).

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Correspondence to Bruno Basalisco .

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Okholm, H.B., Basalisco, B., Boivie, A.M., Gårdebrink, J. (2018). Challenges of Regulating Quality of Service in the Postal Industry. In: Parcu, P., Brennan, T., Glass, V. (eds) New Business and Regulatory Strategies in the Postal Sector. Topics in Regulatory Economics and Policy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02937-1_3

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