Surgical margins and survival after head and neck cancer surgery

BACKGROUND: Mixed results exist as to whether positive surgical margins impact survival. The aim of this study was to determine whether positive surgical margins are indeed associated with decreased survival in patients with primary head and neck cancer. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 261 cases diagnosed with cancer of the larynx or tongue between 1995 and 1999. Cases were followed through December 31, 2002. Survival curves by margin status were generated by Kaplan-Meier methods. Categorical data were evaluated with odds ratios (OR). RESULTS: All-cause mortality was markedly higher in cases with positive margins as compared with those with negative margins (54% versus 29%, P = 0.005). This pattern also appeared after adjusting for age and sex (OR = 2.97, 95% CI: 1.29 – 6.84). CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that positive surgical margin status is associated with increased mortality. This association also generally persists after adjustment for tumor size, stage, and adjuvant therapy

Reforms, Market Dynamics and Productivity in Developing Countries

Between the end of World War II and the mid-eighties, development strategy in a number of developing countries was based on the protectionist "Import substitution" (IS) concept. Many of these countries' governments were of the opinion that maintaining free trade would prevent their economies from industrializing and would therefore render them vulnerable to long-term adverse movements in terms of trade, and impact their growth and welfare. However, during the 1980s, both economists and policy-makers became skeptical about the beneficial impact of the IS strategy. The difference in performance between the outward-oriented Asian and the inward-oriented Latin American economies clearly called for a reconsideration of the strategy. Empirical evidence (Sachs and Warner 1995) also suggests that open economies tend to adjust more rapidly from primary-intensive to manufacture-intensive exports, and to achieve sustained growth. Since the mid-eighties, many LDCs have engaged in a process of economic reform, involving a more outward orientation of their economies, the lowering of trade barriers, privatization of many industries and reform of the foreign-exchange market. © 2010 Springer-Verlag New York.SCOPUS: ch.binfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Why and how FDI stocks are a biased measure of MNE affiliate activity

Many international business (IB) studies have used foreign direct investment (FDI) stocks to measure the aggregate value-adding activity of multinational enterprises (MNE) affiliates in host countries. We argue that FDI stocks are a biased measure of that activity, because the degree to which they overestimate or underestimate affiliate activity varies systematically with host-country characteristics. First, most FDI into countries that serve as tax havens generate no actual productive activity; thus FDI stocks in such countries overestimate affiliate activity. Second, FDI stocks do not include locally raised external funds, funds widely used in countries with well-developed financial markets or volatile exchange rates, resulting in an underestimation of affiliate activity in such countries. Finally, the extent to which FDI translates into affiliate activity increases with affiliate labor productivity, so in countries where labor is more productive, FDI stocks also result in an underestimation of affiliate activity. We test these hypotheses by first regressing affiliate value-added and affiliate sales on FDI stocks to calculate a country-specific mismatch, and then by regressing this mismatch on a host country's tax haven status, level of financial market development, exchange rate volatility, and affiliate labor productivity. All hypotheses are supported, implying that FDI stocks are a biased measure of MNE affiliate activity, and hence that the results of FDI-data-based studies of such activity need to be reconsidered

Governance infrastructure and US foreign direct investment

This paper examines the statistical importance of governance infrastructure as a determinant of US foreign direct investment (FDI). In broad terms, governance infrastructure represents attributes of legislation, regulation, and legal systems that condition freedom of transacting, security of property rights, and transparency of government and legal processes. Our econometric analysis uses a two-stage estimation procedure. In the first stage, the probability that a country is an FDI recipient is estimated. The results indicate that countries that fail to achieve a minimum threshold of effective governance are unlikely to receive any US FDI. Countries that receive no US FDI are typically countries that do not promote free and transparent markets, that have ineffective governments, and that often have legal systems that are not rooted in English common law. In the second stage, the analysis is restricted to those countries that did receive FDI flows. The estimated equations focus on the determinants of the amount of FDI received. Given that a country is a recipient of US FDI, governance infrastructure – including the nature of the legal system – is an important determinant of the amount received. Journal of International Business Studies (2003) 34, 19–39. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400001

Location and the multinational enterprise: A neglected factor?

This article first traces the changing world economic scenario for international business over the past two decades, and then goes on to examine its implications for the location of foreign direct investment and multinational enterprise activity. It suggests that many of the explanations of the 1970s and early 1980s need to be modified as firm-specific assets have become mobile across natural boundaries. A final section of the article examines the dynamic interface between the value-added activities of multinational enterprises in different locations. Journal of International Business Studies (2009) 40, 5–19. doi:10.1057/jibs.2008.74