The Political Economy and the Natural Monopoly of the Postal Service: the Swedish case

Mats Bladh
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Mats Bladh: Department of Technology and Social Change, Linköping Universitet, SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden. +46 13 284453. matbl@tema.liu.se

Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, 2001, vol. 12, issue 3, 229-248

Abstract: The postal service is a neglected business in academic historiography. Today’s postal service confronts two challenges: information technology and deregulation. This study deals mostly with deregulatory issues in a historical perspective. Comparisons between different periods in Swedish postal history in regard to competition, cross-subsidisation and bases for a natural monopoly is presented, and also the long-term development of mail volume. It will be argued that there has been quite different attitudes towards competition; that different forms of cross-subsidisation has existed; that the postal service has been a natural monopoly, but for reasons related to change; that mail composition has been transformed from correspondence to mass mail; and that mail volume has increased despite the rise of new modes of communication.

Date: 2001
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:jinter:v:12:y:2001:i:3:p:229-248

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