This paper illustrates the differences in the ordinary commercial distribution of retail outlets and the politically inspired distribution of post offices in Italy and the United States. It compares the distribution of bank branches to the distribution of post offices in Italy and the...

This paper investigates the hypothesis that if the incumbent were given the freedom to adjust its prices for contestable mail, an entrant would be able to capture only a very limited amount of mail and the monopoly would be shown to have little value. It examines the effect of flexible pricing...