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Uniform Service, Uniform Productivity? Regional Efficiency of the Imperial German Postal, Telegraph, and Telephone Service
Author(s) -
Ploeckl Florian
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
australian economic history review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.493
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 1467-8446
pISSN - 0004-8992
DOI - 10.1111/aehr.12099
Subject(s) - postal service , productivity , german , service (business) , offset (computer science) , post office , business , data envelopment analysis , telecommunications , economics , industrial organization , engineering , marketing , computer science , economic growth , geography , mathematics , political science , statistics , public administration , archaeology , programming language
Using the regional productivity of the Reichspost , the postal service of the German Empire, I investigate whether a public monopolist operates with uniform regional productivity. Using data envelopment analysis efficiency scores, we derive the relative productivity of the post, telegraph, and telephone sectors from 1891 to 1908. Results show a fairly stable system with substantial raw productivity differences between postal districts, and that the expansion of the service offset technological productivity increases for the mail service.