BACKGROUND Social franchising is the fastest growing market-based approach to organising and improving the quality of care in the private sector of low- and middle-income countries, but there is limited evidence on its impact and cost-effectiveness. The "Sky" social franchise model was introduced in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in late 2013. METHODS/DESIGN Difference-in-difference method...

We have been monitoring VTX station at 17KHz from the Centre for Space Physics VLF receiver. While everyday we receive the so­called classic patterns of sun­rise and sun­set, we started observing irregular behaviour of the local terminators from December 22nd, 2004 onward and it continued till the 30th of December, 2004. It is to be recalled that the devastating Tsunami occurred on the 26th of ...

Many theories of democratization suggest that extending the right to vote will lead to increased government expenditure (e.g. Meltzer and Richard, 1981; Lizzeri and Persico, 2004; Acemoglu and Robinson, 2000). However, these models frequently assume that government can engage in transfer expenditure, which is often not true for local governments. This paper presents and tests a model in which g...

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between: a) the motivational climate developed by a national exercise franchise and b) members’ sense of ownership in and enjoyment of exercise. Members of a national exercise franchise (N=5,329) were surveyed to learn their views on the motivational climate (autonomy supportive, caring, taskand egoinvolving), exercise class ownership, a...

This paper develops a two-stage model to consider a franchise/franchisee environment in which supply chains are simultaneously entering the untapped market to produce either identical or highly substitutable products and give franchise to franchisees. Customer demand is elastic, price dependent and customer utility function is based on Huff gravity rule model. The supply chains, in the first st...

This paper reviews the Latin American experience with highway privatization during the last decade. Using evidence from Argentina, Colombia and Chile, we find that private financing of new highways freed up fewer public resources than expected because public funds were often diverted to bail out franchise holders. Furthermore, our review of the evidence suggests that pervasive contract renegoti...

The sports industry has seen a rapid adoption of dynamic pricing practices in recent years. However, there is still limited understanding on the effect of dynamic pricing on revenue in sport event settings and how to execute effective dynamic pricing strategies. In this paper, we address these issues by developing a comprehensive demand model for single-game ticket sales that can be used to pre...

A noticeable implication of unprecedented expansion in size and population of major cities of Pakistan has been the demand for transport facilities and services. The generally low car ownership rate and limited access to personal motorised transport has created space for public transport to become the most efficient way of providing good access for longer distance trips within the cities. The u...