We examine how agency problems in the workplace interact with compensation policies by taking advantage of the structure of the hotel industry, in which many chains have both company managed and franchised properties. As residual claimants on their properties' profits, franchisees have stronger...

The relational contracts literature suggests that a principal can improve contract self-enforceability by specifying initial requirements that increase the agent's ex-post rents. Initial requirements specified in hotel franchise agreements — size and quality-tier of hotel — offer a unique...

We use a unique proprietary monthly panel data set on the operations of a large hotel firm to study the effect of vertical integration decisions on the pricing and performance (occupancy rate and RevPar) of individual hotels. Aggregate data patterns ndash; which managers pay most attention to...