In our contribution, we analyze whether the traditional pricing concept
(sender pays principle) remains dominant in competitive postal markets. We divide the competitive postal market into a processing and delivery part, where a postal operator faces two kinds of customers: senders in the former and receivers in the latter part of the market. Based on the contributions by Laffont, Rey and Tirole (1998), Rochet and Tirole (2003), Armstrong (2006), and Panzar (2006) we develop a theoretical model with consumers' platform choice between two operators competing in linear upstream and two-part downstream prices and being interconnected by a symmetric access regime to P.O. boxes. Thereby, we extend the analysis of a delivery flat rate by Felisberto et al. (2006) and Friedli et al. (2006) to a competitive environment and assess optimum pricing schemes in market equilibrium.
The article analyzes the dynamic effects of tariff liberalization on a small open economy. The primary focus is on nonmonotonic adjustment patterns of net lending such as overshooting or opposite short- and long run effects. When capital accumulation tilts wage income toward the future in the early transition periods, present generations perceive life-cycle type savings disincentives which create a transitory shortfall in savings. In the long run, wage profiles become flat again, and the savings deficiency vanishes. The transitory savings component may give rise to overshooting or opposite short- and long-run adjustment in the total stock of savings and net foreign assets.
This volume centres on the issues surrounding the likely economic impact that EU membership has on joining nations, with the main emphasis on new issues and methods. Given the significantly greater level of economic integration that now exists in the EU, accession brings up a host of issues that either did not arise or were of secondary importance during earlier enlargement waves. For instance, EU membership now entails eventual membership in the monetary union. This raises a series of new issues such as interest rate convergence, exchange rate stability and the loss of sovereignty over monetary policy. Additionally, these macro issues interact with micro issues such as export performance, capital formation and foreign direct investment (FDI). Migration, unemployment and foreign direct investment are further issues that acquire a magnified importance for the prospective entrants. All of these questions are treated in the contributions in this book should be of particular interest to academics as well as decisionmakers in prospective member countries.
