Positive or negative? : the impact of anti-takeover legislation on R&D investment

Anti-takeover laws are laws designed to protect target companies from hostile activity by making the bidder’s attempt of acquisition more expensive and/or time consuming, as there are three different types anti-takeover laws. The aim of this dissertation is analyzing the impact of different kind of antitakeover laws (fair price laws, control share acquisition laws, and business combination laws) on firm R&D expenditures. In order to do so, this study uses data about U.S. public firms between 1970 and 2011. The empirical findings indicate that fair Price laws increase R&D activities because of the possibility of increasing the expected takeover premium for managers, whereas control share acquisition laws and business combination laws decrease it by reducing the external pressure, which is the biggest incentive for firm managers to remain competitive in the market. Alongside, Business Combination laws seem not to have a significant impact on firm’s R&D expenditures

Pancreatic surgery outcomes: multicentre prospective snapshot study in 67 countries

Background: Pancreatic surgery remains associated with high morbidity rates. Although postoperative mortality appears to have improved with specialization, the outcomes reported in the literature reflect the activity of highly specialized centres. The aim of this study was to evaluate the outcomes following pancreatic surgery worldwide.Methods: This was an international, prospective, multicentre, cross-sectional snapshot study of consecutive patients undergoing pancreatic operations worldwide in a 3-month interval in 2021. The primary outcome was postoperative mortality within 90 days of surgery. Multivariable logistic regression was used to explore relationships with Human Development Index (HDI) and other parameters.Results: A total of 4223 patients from 67 countries were analysed. A complication of any severity was detected in 68.7 percent of patients (2901 of 4223). Major complication rates (Clavien-Dindo grade at least IIIa) were 24, 18, and 27 percent, and mortality rates were 10, 5, and 5 per cent in low-to-middle-, high-, and very high-HDI countries respectively. The 90-day postoperative mortality rate was 5.4 per cent (229 of 4223) overall, but was significantly higher in the low-to-middle-HDI group (adjusted OR 2.88, 95 per cent c.i. 1.80 to 4.48). The overall failure-to-rescue rate was 21 percent; however, it was 41 per cent in low-to-middle-compared with 19 per cent in very high-HDI countries.Conclusion: Excess mortality in low-to-middle-HDI countries could be attributable to failure to rescue of patients from severe complications. The authors call for a collaborative response from international and regional associations of pancreatic surgeons to address management related to death from postoperative complications to tackle the global disparities in the outcomes of pancreatic surgery (NCT04652271; ISRCTN95140761)