Abstract This paper studies the design of doctors' remuneration schemes. Two for-profit hospitals compete to attract patients and to affiliate doctors. The numbers of patients and doctors determine an hospital's quality level which is valued on both sides. Quality can be enhanced by doctors...

Abstract What accounts for the existence of positive energy taxes in the US, given that such taxes are regressive and that the income distribution is skewed to the right? The traditional majority-voting equilibrium approach suggests a subsidy; thus we also look at two alternatives. These are the...

Abstract We consider an industry where an upstream firm determines the size of a network used by two downstream firms. We contrast ownership unbundling and legal unbundling, where the upstream firm maximizes its total profit, including the profit of its downstream subsidiary(ies), but does not...

We study the pricing and welfare implications of changing the VAT status of the national postal operator (NPO) from exempt to rated. We build a model where the NPO offers both single-piece and bulk mail to customers, some of them VAT rated, others VAT exempt. We solve for the optimal Ramsey...

We build a model where a postal incumbent offering single piece, transactional and advertising mail competes with postal entrants and with a firm offering an alternative medium. We solve for the optimal prices under various competition assumptions. We calibrate the model and provide numerical...

This paper studies the relationship between USO and environmental concern in the postal sector. We concentrate on the obligation to deliver mail on a D+1 basis. We examine how the USO should be designed to properly account for the environmental cost in a variety of situations ranging from a...

We provide a brief introduction to the current issue of the Review of Network Economics, which is a special issue devoted to the postal sector based on the sixth bi-annual Toulouse conference on “Competition and universal service in the postal sector.”