The federal government should progressively allow new entrants to bid for some of the mail services currently provided by Canada Post, says a report released today by the C.D. Howe Institute. In “How Ottawa Can Deliver a Reformed Canada Post,” author Benjamin Dachis, Senior Policy Analyst at...

Empirical work shows that competition is important for promoting economic growth. However, in Japan the promotion of competition has long been compromised by ministerial guidance and exemptions from the competition law. Thus, the level and growth of productivity have been low in many...

Norwegian growth has been strong over the past decade. This development has been supported by the off-shore sector, but depleting oil reserves implies that growth will have to rely increasingly on the mainland economy. Empirical work shows that competition is important for promoting economic...

Following the deep recession in the early 1990s growth has been strong, but the scope for economic catch-up remains considerable and cross-country empirical evidence suggests that enhancing competition is an important means of achieving this. Structural reforms to strengthen competition in the...

Digitalization is a reality that governs more and more both the society and the economy, facilitating new and more efficient ways of setting up business and business collaborations. Rational agreement routines and well thought through contracts help organizations to avoid legal disputes and thus...

Despite the emergence of contracts between governments and private actors involved in public services, a critical issue is how to enforce payments based on outcomes such as student learning or prisoner recidivism. Imperfect measurement may fail to reflect changes in outcomes that were caused by...

The government wants two tasks to be performed. In each task, unobservable effort can be exerted by a wealth-constrained private contractor. If the government faces no binding budget constraints, it is optimal to bundle the tasks. The contractor in charge of both tasks then gets a bonus payment...

This paper analyses the accountability and control process of activities outsourced by municipali-ties in the Netherlands. The focus is twofold: 1) on the accountability and control process be-tween the external party and the municipality (i.e., its civil servants, on behalf of the Executive)...

This paper categorises four different types of monopoly in which competition for-the-market might occur. It discusses the role of government granted concessions as a way to strengthen competition in markets where competition in-the-market is not always possible and suggests that concessions...