Future Directions in Postal Reform brings together leading practitioners, world-wide postal administrations, and the courier industry, as well as a number of regulators, academic economists, mailers, and lawyers, to examine some of the major policy and regulatory issues facing the postal and delivery industry. Issues addressed include international postal policy; the universal service obligation; regulation; competition, entry, and the role of scale and scope economies; the nature and role of cost analysis in postal service; productivity; interaction of law and economics; and future technologies and service standards.Future Directions in Postal Reform brings together leading practitioners, world-wide postal administrations, and the courier industry, as well as a number of regulators, academic economists, mailers, and lawyers, to examine some of the major policy and regulatory issues facing the postal and delivery industry. Issues addressed include international postal policy; the universal service obligation; regulation; competition, entry, and the role of scale and scope economies; the nature and role of cost analysis in postal service; productivity; interaction of law and economics; and future technologies and service standards.Authors. Sponsors. Preface and Acknowledgements. Regulation and Liberalization. 1. Difficulties of Deregulation When Wage Costs are the Major Cost; M.L. Wachter, et al. 2. Estimation of the Potential Impact of Cross-Border Liberalization; I. Reay, et al. 3. A Critique of the Theory of Incentive Regulation; M.A. Crew, P.R. Kleindorfer. (*) 4. Preparing the Postal Service's Rate Structures for Competition; R.W. Mitchell. 5. Regulatory and Governance Changes in Liberalized, Commercialized Postal Environments; R.M. Campbell. Universal Service Obligation. 6. Funding Universal Service Obligations: The Costs of Liberalization; J.C. Panzar. 7. Whither the USO under Competitive Elă®