This paper presents a theory of vertical most favored nation clauses (MFNs) and then applies the theory to the credit card industry. A vertical MFN is a restraint that an upstream supplier imposes on a retailer that prevents the retailer from charging more for the supplier’s product than for the products of rival suppliers. In the market for credit card services, this restraint takes the form o...

BACKGROUND The method of characteristics (also called as the slip-line method) is used to calculate the bearing capacity of strip footings on ponderable soil. The soil is assumed to be a rigid plastic that conforms to the Mohr-Coulomb criterion. The solution procedures proposed in this paper is implemented using a finite difference method and suitable for both smooth and rough footings. By acco...

Expansive soils can be found in many parts of the world particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. These soilspose a significant hazard to civil engineering structures due to its high swelling and shrinkage potential. This paperpresents the results of an experimental program developed to investigate the effect of cyclic drying and wetting on theswelling potential of expansive soils with variou...