Abstract
In Japan, the Postal Services Agency1 has provided monopolistic postal services for more than one hundred years based on Article 1 of the Postal Law, which stipulates, “the objective of postal service is to enhance public welfare by fairly providing postal services at the lowest possible rate on a nationwide basis.” Institute for Posts and Telecommunications Policy (IPTP) and Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) (2000) clarified the purpose of Japan’s postal universal services specifically as “to deliver letter-postcard items and parcels accepted through post boxes or post offices throughout the country, with the lowest possible rate and on a nationwide basis to each doorstep.”2 However, in 2003, Japan’s postal operation is scheduled to shift from the Postal Services Agency to a new state-run corporation with a more flexible management structure, and the letter-postcard delivery will be fully opened to private companies. Postal administrations in many industrialized countries will also be facing diminishing reserved areas and increasing competition with new entrants to newly liberalized postal markets. For postal services to fulfill their universal service obligation (USO), the postal administrations around the world are expected to focus on increasing operational efficiency and productivity to preserve a fair and affordable postal rate.
Keywords
- Data Envelopment Analysis
- Total Factor Productivity
- Postal Service
- Postal Item
- Malmquist Productivity Index
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
The content of this paper is solely the authors’ opinion and does not reflect official opinions of the Ministry (MPHPT) and the organizations to which the authors belong. We thank Frank Wolak as a discussant in the 9th Conference on postal and Delivery Economics held in Sorrento, Italy. We also thank Michael A. Crew and paul R. Kleindorfer for giving us beneficial comments to a draft.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Banker, R. D., A. Chames, and W. W. Cooper. 1984. “Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis.” Management Science 30: 1078–1092.
Chames, A., W. W. Cooper and E. Rhodes. 1978. “Measuring the Efficiency of Decision Making Units.” European Journal of Operational Research 2: 429–444.
Cohen, R. H., E. H. Chu, W. W. Ferguson and S. S. Xenakis. 1997. “A Cross Sectional Comparison and Analysis of Productivity for 21 National Postal Administrations.” In Managing Change in the Postal and Delivery Industries, edited by M.A.Crew and P.R.Kleindorfer, Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Coelli, T., D. S. Rao and G. E. Battese. 1998. An Introduction to Efficiency and Productivity Analysis, Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Farrel, M. J. 1957. “The Measurement of Productive Efficiency” Journal of Royal Statistics Society, Series A, CXX Part3: 253–290.
Fare, R., S. Grosskopf, M. Norris and Z. Zhang. 1994. “Productivity Growth, Technical Progress, and Efficiency Changes in Industrialized Countries” American Economic Review: 84: 66–83.
Nakajima, T. 2001. The Productivity Analysis of Japanese Economy — Empirical Approach with Real Data, Nihon Keizai Simbunsha [Japanese].
Matsuura, K. and McKenzie, C. 2001. Quantitative Economic Analysis via E-Views Toyo Keizai Shinposha [Japanese].
Oum, T. H, and C. Yu. 1994. “Economic Efficiency of Railways and Implications for Public Policy” Journal of Transport Economics and Policy Vol. 28: 121–138.
Pimenta. A. A., R. G. Santos and S. C. Lagoa. 2000. “Technical Efficiency in CTT- Correios de Portugal” In Current Directions in Postal Reform, edited by M. A. Crew and P.R. Kleindorfer. Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers: 237–272
Stiglitz, J. E. 1997. Economics 2nd Edition W.W.Norton.
Torii, A. 2001. The Management Efficiency of Japanese Firms, NTT Publishings [Japanese].
Yoshioka, K. 1999. “Index Theory” in Basics of Econometric Analysis, Chapter 5, edited by K. Yoshioka and T. Nakajima.: Keio University Academic Publishers [Japanese].
Institute for Posts and Telecommunications Policy (IPTP) and Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT). 2000. “The Research and Study on Universal Service in Postal Services” (http://www.iptp.go.jp/pressrelease/f_index.html) [Japanese].
Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. 2000. “Japan’s Postal Service 1999/2000”.
Universal Postal Union. Postal Statistics Switzerland.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2002 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Maruyama, S., Nakajima, T. (2002). The Productivity Analysis of Postal Services. In: Crew, M.A., Kleindorfer, P.R. (eds) Postal and Delivery Services. Topics in Regulatory Economics and Policy Series, vol 44. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0233-3_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0233-3_7
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-4978-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-0233-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive