An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Conference on Franchise Contracting, Organization, and Regulation, Michigan Business School. I am indebted to the conference participants, and particularly to G. Frank Mathewson, for helpful suggestions. I also received perceptive comments from the conference organizers, Francine Lafontaine and Scott Masten. I have benefited from discussions of the subject matter of this paper with Tasneem Chipty, James Delaney, Robert Fenili, Tom Hogarty, Robert Lande, Jim Peck, and Anthony Robinson. None of the above should be implicated in the conclusions put forth below.