Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics 83:4 2012 pp. 435–443 ECONOMIES OF SCALE AND SCOPE IN POSTAL OUTLETS UNDER CONSIDERATION OF UNOBSERVED HETEROGENEITY by Massimo FILIPPINI ETH Zurich and University of Lugano, Switzerland and Martin KOLLER* ETH Zurich, Switzerland ABSTRACT: We analyze economies of scale and scope in Swiss Post’s post ofﬁces and franchised postal agencies under consideration of different underlying production technologies and unobserved factors using a latent class model. The results conﬁrm the existence of unobserved heterogeneity and of increasing economies of scale and scope in the Swiss Post’s outlet network. Key words: economies of scale and scope, postal outlet network, unobserved heterogeneity, latent class. JEL classiﬁcation: C21, D24, H42, L92 Econom´ ıas de escala y de gama en las oﬁcinas de correos: heterogeneidad no observada En este paper se analizan las econom´ ıas de escala y de gama en las oﬁcinas de Correos de Suiza y en las agencias postales franquiciadas. Se consideran diferentes tecnolog´ ıas de producci´ on subyacentes, as´ı como otros factores inobservados, con la ayuda de un modelo de tipo latente. Los resultados conﬁrman la existencia de una heterogeneidad no observada y de economias de escala y de gama crecientes. Skalen und Verbundeffekte in Postagenturen: unbeobachteter Heterogenit ¨ at Wir analysieren Skalen- und Verbundeffekte in den Poststellen und Postagenturen der Schweizerischen Post unter Ber ¨ ucksichtigung unterschiedlicher Produktionstechnologien und unbeobachteter Faktoren mit Hilfe eines Latenten Klassenmodells. Die Resultate * The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reﬂect the opinion of the institutions with which they are afﬁliated. We thank Prof. Dr. Mehdi Farsi (University of Neuch ˆ atel), Dr. Urs Trinkner (University of Zurich) and Martin Buser (Swiss Post) for their helpful comments and support. We thank Swiss Post for access to their data. Any remaining errors are our own. Email: martinkoller@ethz.ch. C  2012 The Authors Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics C  2012 CIRIEC. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA