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α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
We discuss recent research on the growth of chains in the retail and service sectors, and point out the role of franchising in these industries, using new data on franchising collected by the U.S. Census Bureau. We then discuss several topics that one can analyze with data on chains, and highlight the advantages of using such data. Our hope is to entice other researchers to consider chains, and franchised chains, as a context for their own empirical research, and thus also improve our understanding of the sectors where these firms operate.