Environmental Cost and Universal Service Obligations in the Postal Sector

Abstract

During the last two decades, the postal sectors in the EU member states have faced twomajor trends. On the one hand, markets have been liberalized to an increasing degree,and full liberalization is now just around the corner. On the other hand, traditionalpostal products have been subject to an increasing degree of competition from electronicsubstitutes. The first trend has been extensively studied in the literature and its impli-cations are by now well understood. The electronic substitutes have also received a lotof attention but the jury is still out when it comes to assessing their precise impact onthe demand for postal products in the coming years and decades.A third major trend which is likely to have a significant effect on the future of thepostal sector has hitherto largely been ignored by the literature: the increasing im-portance of sustainable growth considerations and of environmental policy. The postalsector affects the environment through at least two channels: the consumption of paperon the one hand, and CO