The Distribution of Post Offices in Italy and the United States.

This paper illustrates the differences in the ordinary commercial distribution of retail outlets and the politically inspired distribution of post offices in Italy and the United States. It compares the distribution of bank branches to the distribution of post offices in Italy and the distribution of retail pharmacies to the distribution of post offices in the U.S. It provides the historical reasons for the disproportionate number of rural post offices in both countries. It also comments on the burden of financing retail postal counters in a competitive environment and on some ways to approach the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]