Relative prices and electronic substitution: Changes in household-level demand for postal delivery services from 1986 to 2004

Type Journal Article - Journal of econometrics
Title Relative prices and electronic substitution: Changes in household-level demand for postal delivery services from 1986 to 2004
Author(s)
Volume 145
Issue 1
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2008
Page numbers 226-242
URL https://web.stanford.edu/group/fwolak/cgi-bin/sites/default/files/files/Relative prices and​electronic substitution_Changes in household-level demand for postal delivery services from 1986 to​2004_May 2008_Seung-Hyun Hong, Wolak.pdf
Abstract
This paper quantifies the extent to which the shift in the aggregate household-level demand for postal delivery services can be attributed to the appearance of alternative modes of communication versus the concomitant rise in postal prices. We find that both recent postal price increases and the penetration of personal computer technology among US households led to similar reductions in postal expenditure. We further find that a 5% postal price increase, such as the one introduced in January 2006 reduces revenue collected from US households by $215 million and imposes an aggregate welfare loss on US households of $333 million.

Related studies

»
»
»