Postal Industry Research Articles

Enhancing Competition in the Postal Sector: Can We Do Away with Sector-Specific Regulation?

Enhancing Competition in the Postal Sector: Can We Do Away with Sector-Specific Regulation?

An unusual cause of breathlessness: part 2

A72 year old man was referred to the respiratory team by the cardiologists. He had been operated on for a cardiac myxoma in the past, and was now complaining of shortness of breath. The patient had worked in the postal industry all his life, had never smoked, and consumed 10 units of alcohol a week. He had been investigated for breathlessness about 18 months previously, when a left atrial myxoma had been diagnosed and surgically excised. At this time, benign pleural thickening had been noted, which was thought to be secondary to asbestos exposure. The patient reported that since his operation he had experienced breathlessness on minimal exertion, which was more pronounced when lying flat. He denied any swelling of his ankles. The cardiology team had repeated his echocardiogram, which was normal with no recurrence of his atrial myxoma and with normal left ventricular function. Physical examination was unremarkable. ### Box 1: Causes of unilateral diaphragmatic paralysis 1. What difference between the two radiographs could account for this patient's breathlessness? 2. What are the common causes for this finding, and what is the cause in this patient's case? 3. What simple scheme can you use to study chest radiographs to ensure all the salient aspects are noted?

An unusual cause of breathlessness: part 1

A71 year old man with breathlessness and a non-productive cough was referred by his general practitioner to the respiratory team. He gave a two year history of breathlessness, and at presentation had an exercise tolerance of about 180 metres. He denied wheeze, slept with four pillows, and occasionally woke with shortness of breath. He was not taking any regular medication, and was unaware of any drug allergies. He had no relevant family history. Thirty years previously, benign asbestos related disease had been diagnosed. The patient had worked in the postal industry all his life, had never smoked, and consumed 10 units of alcohol a week. Examination showed the man was of normal build and comfortable at rest. Basic observations were within normal limits. Physical examination was unremarkable with no evidence of cardiovascular or respiratory disease. Results of spirometry were within normal limits. A chest radiograph revealed subtle pleural thickening (characterised by smooth denser white areas at the edges of …

Postal Security, Anthrax and beyond Europe's Posts and the Critical Network Challenge: Lessons from the Anthrax Case to Meet Future Challenges

La Poste's chairman, Mr Vial, was in New York when he heard the news: According to AFP, two persons had been infected with anthrax in Germany, Europe's first confirmed cases in the mail-bourn terrorist scare of autumn 2001. He immediately tried to get in touch with his counterpart at Deutsche Post, to no avail. He was also unable to get a hold of the head of Royal Mail. Unfortunately, the news came on November 2, part of a long weekend holiday in much of Europe. Mr Vial had to settle for a conference call with a few of the staff members at La Poste who were working that day. Tension remained high until 8:30 p.m. that evening, when AFP finally announced that its earlier report had proved false. For an industry such as the postal sector, being able to work together in times of crisis is crucial. Each day millions of letters and parcels are shipped across borders in Europe. As worries of contamination spread from the U.S. to Asia, Europe, and around the globe, it became clear to everyone, and not just those in the postal industry, just how interconnected the global postal network truly is. PostEurop members and officers, of course, have long been aware of the interconnectedness of the operators. This interconnectedness can bring benefits, as when we are able to suggest to our members common solutions to common problems. But the anthrax crisis has also shown the flip side of the coin. As fears of contamination spread beyond the U.S., posts acted individually in drawing up their contingency planning. But, although some informal contacts had been established among crisis managers, no co-ordinated effort had been made to deal with the crisis at the European level. The first lesson was self-evident: The post industry was prepared for specific, local or national crises. It was not for international interconnected crises. A lack of co-ordination and effective communications planning was revealed. Clearly, a new area of risks and potential crises had emerged. As a result both the structure and culture of systems safety and crisis preparedness had to be revisited. PostEurop has considerable experience in getting its members to tackle tough issues that can affect them all. This case was just another difficult challenge to meet. But when such a challenging issue emerges the process has to contain a mix of numerous ingredients. A number of coordinated and well designed initiatives created a key drive to the process. The determination of several public postal operators to put the issue on the agenda and to work hard on a benchmarking project gave the initial impulse. The intellectual input to clarify the challenge as well as general support coming from public postal operators throughout the continent and a strong innovative coordination capacity at European level was put in place. And, last but not least, the direct cooperation of USPS, directly confronted to the most severe front of this crisis, as well as other organisations such as the Universal Postal Union and CERP. The most important factor contributing to success and of benefit to any complex international network confronted to such emerging threats with a potentially debilitating industrywide impact, is sharing experiences on that very rich process launched in response to the crisis. This is the guiding principle of this paper, which focuses on the crucial issue, the global process of being prepared for crises, and not only the specific (national) results of crises on an individual basis.

Distortion of Competition in the Postal Sector: The EC Case Law on Abuse of Market Power and State Aid

The failure of the Community legislature to agree until very recently to the additional liberalization and deregulation of the postal services sector, which had been envisaged by the 1997 Postal Directive, has meant that the competition rules of the Treaty have retained a central role in this field. It is probable that the solutions which these rules offer for resolving what seems to be an increasing number of disputes in an industry which has undergone major changes, in economic, technological and regulatory terms, are less nuanced than those that have emerged from the legislative process. However, until the current logjam is broken, it is clear that EC competition law and the Community courts will be the final resort where incumbents and new entrants come into conflict. The establishment of a truly competitive environment in the postal sector, allowing users to benefit from better quality of service and cheaper prices, depends crucially, in the present phase of gradual and controlled market opening, on the need to avoid re-monopolization of liberalized markets by incumbent public operators indulging in unlawful market behavior (abuse of market power restricting the competitors' activities, extension of dominance into neighboring non-dominated markets, distortion of competition through the grant of State aid or illegal cross-subsidization). As to the Luxembourg courts' role in the application of EC competition rules, the Author submits that, on the one hand, the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance have refused to become involved as a driving force behind the liberalization of postal services; on the other hand, they have sought to strike a delicate balance between the creation a more competitive and integrated internal market in the postal industry and the objective of securing the viability of public service activities through preservation of existing exclusive rights, which had formerly been justified on the basis of national sovereignty and of universal service obligations.

Demand for Commercial Bank Production Workers and Administrators: Demand Deposit Operations

A search of the recent literature turned up only a handful of studies dealing with factor demand. In [ 1 ] labor demand functions were derived from a Cobb-Douglas production model and estimated for various types of labor in commercial banks. In [2] a labor demand function was included as one of three structural equations in a labor market model for registered nurses. The assumption of production function homotheticity was analyzed by estimating derived factor demand functions for the Japanese petroleum processing industry in [15]. The authors concluded that the production function is not homothetic. Demand functions for floor space, labor, and capital in the postal services industry were derived and estimated in [18] by using a generalized Cobb-Douglas production function. A final study [22] has considered factor demand at a level of aggregation above that for a specific industry. Factor demand was considered within a dynamic model and the various equations were estimated using quarterly data for total manufacturing. Considerable work has been conducted in the area of factor productivity (see [21] for a comprehensive review of the literature). Most of this work has concentrated on explaining the causes of productivity by using aggregate manufacturing data for groups of industries and countries. Studies of firms in a specific