The paper develops an overlapping generations model with probabilistic aging of households. We define age as a set of personal attributes such as earnings potential, health and tastes that are characteristic of a person's position in the life-cycle. In assuming a limited number of different...

The labor market effects of pension reform stem from retirement behavior and from job search and hours worked of prime age workers. This paper investigates the impact of four often proposed policy measures for sustainable pensions: strengthening the tax benefit link, moving from wage to price...

This chapter analyzes the effects of an aging population on individual skill choices and the production structure by means of a dynamic general equilibrium model with overlapping generations and probabilistic aging. The model allows for capital-skill complementarity, which strongly affects the...

This paper analyzes whether frequency of delivery and nationwide coverage obligations constitute USO net costs. With no USO on home delivery in place, the USP may be able to increase profits by optimizing its delivery services. Three such optimizations are scrutinized in detail: (1) adjusting...

The Swiss press is comparatively small and divided into four regional language regions. The press currently benefits from two forms of subsidy: First, selected press products are subsidised indirectly by means of discounted postal transport prices, and second, a reduced value added tax rate is...

This paper discusses the main aspects of the competitive and regulatory state of the postal sector. It presents the different models for postal competition and regulation in the EU and the US and their history, together with their implications on regulation, with a focus on universal services...

The study analyzes the regulatory need of a functional or structural separation of the Swiss incumbent Swisscom.

In this paper we analyzed the strategic competition between incumbent postal operators and market entrants in liberalized letter markets based on the “defender consumer model” pioneered by Hauser and Shugan (1983) and derived qualitative normative implications on how an established firm...