The Social Value of the Post Office Network
5 August 2009
By Stuart Holder and Dr. Kenneth Train with Accent
For this report for Postcomm, a NERA team -- led by Associate Director Stuart Holder and Vice President Dr. Kenneth Train -- worked in conjunction with market research company Accent to provide a quantitative analysis of customers' willingness to pay for the post office network in the UK. Using a conditional logit econometric choice model to estimate customers' willingness to pay from a stated preference survey of 1,200 households and small businesses, the report provides an estimate of the value of the post office network as a whole and the individual services provided by post offices. It also assesses how these values vary between different types of customer and between different areas. The authors also provide an analysis of the profitability of associated businesses attached to post offices, and several case studies of possible competitors to, or alternative providers of, services that can be accessed through the post office network. The main aim of the report is to inform the UK government's and Postcomm's understanding of the social value associated with the post office network.
