Francine
Lafontaine
William Davidson Professor
and Chair of the
Business Economics
and Public Policy group

PROFESSIONAL INFO
I am the William Davidson Professor and Chair of the Business Economics and Public Policy group at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. I am also Professor of Economics (courtesy) at the University of Michigan's Department of Economics. You can find out more about me, including my contact information, on my faculty profile page.

RESEARCH INTERESTS
I study Industrial Organization, Vertical Relationships, Contracting and Franchising, and Entrepreneurship. My research is mostly concerned with the application of advances in contract theory and vertical relationships to the analysis of franchising arrangements. I also study contracts and the role of owner operators in the trucking industry, the effect of contracting practices on firm performance, as well as issues surrounding business creation and survival in retail and small-scale service industries more generally.

My book, The Economics of Franchising [amazon.com] (with Roger D. Blair) was published by Cambridge University Press in 2005. A new paperback edition is now available from Amazon.com. I also edited Franchise Contracting and Organization [amazon.com], published by Edward Elgar Publishing.

Here is my vita in PDF format.

TEACHING
In Fall 2011, I am teaching two sections of BE502, Applied Microeconomics in the MBA program.

In Winter 2012, I will be teaching the Applied Industrial Economics course in the PhD program with Jagaseesh Sivadasan. I will also teach BE591 in the GMBA program.