We use data on the largest U.S.-based franchised chains, measured by worldwide sales, from 1998 to 2007, to explore scale and scope (or spillovers) effects. Because franchised chains are fundamentally single-product or single-concept entities that usually continue to be developed separately when they belong to multi-chain firms, we can distinguish scale from scope effects much better than in mo...

It is shown that the critical (or deconfinement) temperature for the Nambu-Goto string connecting the point-like masses (quarks) does not depend on the value of these masses. This temperature turns out to be the same as that in the case of string with fixed ends (infinitely heavy immobile quarks).

This paper examines the ability of Board Members of the most important multilateral donor to developing countries, the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank, to influence IDA allocations toward their home countries. I show that a system of Bank staff ratings of individual countries' policies, which has become more important in IDA lending over time, has systematically re...

The idea that wages are determined by firm and individual characteristics leads to gather that there is a firms’ effect that influences wage differentials. This paper presents the results of an empirical analysis of gender wage differentials based on INPS data firms for people between the ages of 20 and 25 employed in the private sector in 1996 which takes into account the characteristics of wo...