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Franchise Bidding, Contracting Out, and Worksharing in the Production of Postal Services: Can They Collect, Sort, and Deliver?

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Regulation and the Nature of Postal and Delivery Services

Part of the book series: Topics in Regulatory Economics and Policy Series ((TREP,volume 12))

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Abstract

The Private Express Statutes, enacted in 1845, guarantee’ the United States Postal Service (USPS) sole rights to carry letter mail. The principal argument offered in defense of the statutes is that the supply of postal services constitutes a natural monopoly (cf., Priest (1975); and U.S. President’s Commission on Privatization (1988)) and that efficiency is best promoted by having a single firm serve the entire market. According to the argument, more than one supplier in the market leads to higher than necessary production costs and, on account of the raised costs, higher than necessary prices.

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Authors
  1. Leonard Merewitz
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  2. Mark A. Zupan
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  3. Maurice C. Castro
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Management, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey, USA

    Michael A. Crew

  2. The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Paul R. Kleindorfer

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© 1993 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Merewitz, L., Zupan, M.A., Castro, M.C. (1993). Franchise Bidding, Contracting Out, and Worksharing in the Production of Postal Services: Can They Collect, Sort, and Deliver?. In: Crew, M.A., Kleindorfer, P.R. (eds) Regulation and the Nature of Postal and Delivery Services. Topics in Regulatory Economics and Policy Series, vol 12. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3120-3_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3120-3_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-6365-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-3120-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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