Price elasticity of demand for stamps

Monday, October 05, 2009

The BBC reports that PostComm - the postal service industry regulator has given initial backing for Royal Mail to increase the cost of a standard first-class stamp by three pence. This would take the price up to 42p. At the same time, standard second-class stamps may rise by 2p to 32p. How will consumers respond to the price change? For many the price hike will have little effect - most of the stamps that I buy can be reclaimed as stationery expenses. But many smaller businesses spend heavily on mailshots as a part of their marketing. A rise in mail costs may cause them to consider making more effective use of their customer databases so that - for example - a 3000 mail shot volume is better targeted than before. Do you think that the price elasticity of demand for stamps is price inelastic - at least in the short term?

The Royal Mail is subject to a price cap agreed with their industry regulator. Since the Royal Mail‟s current price control was agreed in 2006, the Royal Mail has lost 9% of its mail volumes over the three year period to April 2009, largely through shrinkage of the total market including 20% of stamped mail. The Royal Mail has also had to face up to increased competition as the postal market has been fully opened up to competition.

Shrinking mail volumes has the effect of reducing capacity utilisation of their collection, sorting and delivery capacity and leads to a rise in the unit costs of the business. The Royal Mail is required by law to operate a universal service across the UK; it is a business that requires substantial economies of scale to remain profitable.

Posted to A2 Micro • AS Micro • Business Economics • Competitive Markets • Economies of Scale • Competition Policy • Government Intervention • Maximum Prices • Market Equilibrium and Price • Elasticity of Demand • Nature of Demand
Tags: demand, competition, price, capacity, profit, elasticity, royal mail, price regulation, stamps, postcomm
No comments yet, add one! Permalink

Page 1 of 1 pages

Most Popular Topic Tags on the Economics Blog

recession, demand, economics, price, unemployment, prices, inflation, investment, costs, profit, downturn, supply, trade, debt, employment, confidence, euro, gdp, competition, capacity, risk, production, china, oil, incentives, exports, expectations, housing, pay, manufacturing, sterling, food, profits, property, mortgage, tutor2u, globalisation, banks, revision, slowdown, borrowing, usa, retailers, emissions, deflation, airlines, innovation, dollar, supermarkets, entrepreneur, efficiency, monopsony, elasticity, aqa, welfare, consumption, economist, productivity, keynes, saving, google, wealth, opec, depression, moodle, depreciation, jobs, competitiveness, credit crunch, economic cycle, cars, tim harford, externalities, stocks, infrastructure, environmental, strategy, carbon, vle, monopoly, subsidy, evaluation, eu, management, losses, protectionism, inequality, spare capacity, environment, poverty, bank of england, budget deficit, construction, behavioural, wages, macroeconomics, carbon trading, steel, commodities, output gap, skills, japan, oligopoly, imports, currencies, bbc, stagflation, contestable, agflation, cpi, farming, newsnight, choices, regulation, survey, taxes, government failure, itunes, minimum wage, lse, climate change, paul mason, population, intervention, keynes society, aviation, amazon, fiscal stimulus, single market, pricing, dan ariely, cartel, nationalisation, pollution, eton college, interest rates, shareholder, london, rationality, redundancies, market failure, rpi, mpc, shipping, behavioural economics, germany, robert peston, india, rsa, reputation, currency, quantitative easing, facebook, income elasticity, current account, stakeholders, brazil, coffee, savings, microsoft, monetary policy, crowding out, barriers to entry, collapse, multiplier effect, suppliers, economies of scale, price discrimination, uk economy, development, quiz, apple, surplus, taxation, labour market, tesco, free, scrappage, behaviour, tragedy of the commons, opportunity cost, open source, vat, smoking, cost of living, poverty trap, merger, growth, speculation, edinburgh, discrimination, ownership, cost benefit analysis, northern rock, global, ireland, supply chain, oecd, shareholders, scarcity, balance of payments, petrol, liquidity, duopoly, etonomics, iphone, trade deficit, starbucks, happiness, budget, human capital, subsidies, capital, immigration, eurozone, takeover, ecb, paradox of thrift, exploitation, advertising, wiki, public sector, utility, wants, labour force survey, peter day, tax, brand, blog, poland, iceland, foreign exchange, recovery, indirect tax, european union, robert frank, roger bootle, ocr economics, heathrow, hbos, hotels, freight, creative destruction, federal reserve, kaletsky, price war, information failure, spain, crude oil, transport, government borrowing, gini coefficient, sony, leverage, migrants, us economy, animal spirits, fishing, stephanie flanders, waste, information, milk, eu enlargement, anchoring, obama, aggregate demand, entrepreneurship society, needs, forecast, internet, discounting, real income, copper, deficit, contestability, nissan, evan davis, companies, fairness, geoff riley, blogging, standard of living, aqa economics, consumer welfare, martin wolf, renewable, labour mobility, collusion, imf, fair trade, pubs, income tax, obesity, res, disposable income, david smith, corus, national debt, devaluation, consumer surplus, vacancies, sub-prime, tariff, global economy, price capping, joint venture, twitter, accelerator effect, startups, guardian, yuan, youth unemployment, immobility, edmund conway, edexcel economics, redundancy, tata, walmart, relative poverty, sentiment, coal, tickets, vehicles, cash, diesel, base rate, russia, liquidity trap, contestable market, marginal cost, external shocks, movies, income elasticity of demand, libor, broadband, fixed costs, comparative advantage, accelerator, allocative efficiency, economic efficiency, pensions, training, king of shaves, satisficing, trend growth, undercover economist, hot money, congestion, price mechanism, deleveraging, positional goods, migration, jobless, social entrepreneur, apprenticeships, hyperinflation, age structure, cyclical, chris coleridge, monopoly power, financial times, ucas, pay cuts, reserve currency, ryanair, wheat, mervyn king, aldi, law of unintended consequences, carbon tax, gillette, deindustrialisation, yahoo, organic growth, barclays, price volatility, derived demand, liberalisation, house prices, richard thaler, royal mail, markets, diseconomies of scale, veblen goods, paul krugman, schumpeter, pension, demography, structural, logging, green revolution, tax burden, savings ratio, ocr, the economist, nhs, job losses, biofuel, drugs, gold, nelson thornes, scotland, cross elasticity, brics, redistribution, footfall, british airways, research, producer welfare, ebea, income distribution, social costs, ft, enterprise, general motors, natural monopoly, tariffs, o2, deforestation, economic welfare, bonds, asda, will king, automatic stabilisers, landfill, economax, energy, long tail, jim o'neill, disincentives, resources, profit margin, podcast, share prices, external shock, slump, philip allan, hedge fund, students, fiscal drag, hysteresis, ftse, elasticity of supply, buy to let, logic of life, contraction, equity, market structure, global business, oil prices, market power, health, ben bernanke, hedging, enlargement, retailing, supply-side, declan curry, nokia, price fixing, chris anderson, bric economies, diane coyle, dynamic efficiency, stimulus, hamish mcrae, toyota, john kay, fiscal policy, winners curse, zimbabwe, compound interest, contestable markets, frictional, rory cellan-jones, status races, claimant count, green shoots, repossession, eastern europe, healthcare, royal economic society, sustainability, public good, credit, superfreakonomics, vertical integration, inflationary pressure, invention, accession countries, probability, sustainable growth, gnp, fairtrade, freemium, g20, affordability, nairu,
All tags

ECONOMICS TEACHER RESOURCE NEWSLETTER

Join over 4,000 other Economics Teachers in the UK and around the world who receive the tutor2u Economics Resource Email newsletter. Get special offers, first news of latest resources, teaching ideas, conferences and workshops.

* Your Email Address:
* Preferred Format:
AS/A2 Economics Board:
GCSE Economics Board:
* Country:
Full Name:
Job / Position:
Postcode:
School / College:
Town / City:
* Enter the security code shown: