This article studies how prior professional connections among founding employees predict a new firm’s short- and medium-term success. The authors apply three employment network measures to a large employer–employee matched Brazilian panel data set to find that network structures are strongly predictive of both firm survival and growth. All else equal, new firms with previously connected founding employees experience higher survival odds but slower early growth. Results suggest that working with former co-workers confers benefits such as resolved informational asymmetries, increased resource sharing, and nonpecuniary gains—qualities that are vital to new firm survival. High growth, however, likely benefits from a more varied resource set, facilitated by drawing on individuals from a multiplicity of employment backgrounds. In addition, the absence of prior ties may itself render the profit motive dominant, thereby increasing growth. Results are consistent across most sectors, initial firm sizes, and other sample selection criteria.

This paper examines how tax policy should be designed to best encourage entrepreneurial activity in start-up firms. We begin by describing several presumed market failures affecting entrepreneurial firms that would lead to an under-provision of entrepreneurial activity: 1) information spillovers from innovations in entrepreneurial firms to other firms, 2) positive externalities to consumers from innovative new products sold by these firms, and 3) lemons problems in the market for both debt and equity issued by these firms. We then analyze the degree to which various tax policy measures can alleviate these failures. A key complication we focus on is the inability of the government to observe which, and the degree to which, any given start-up firm is entrepreneurial. This forces policy to target behavioral differences between entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial start-ups. We presume that start-up firms, to the degree they are entrepreneurial, face upfront costs in developing and marketing a new technology, and in the process face substantial risk. Our analysis then suggests the use of refundable tax savings from business losses in start-ups together with a compensating surtax on the profits of startups (needed in the case of lemons problems) to help alleviate the various market failures faced by entrepreneurial start-ups.

Introduction: Hysterectomy is one of the most common surgeries performed for common gynaecological indications, but less frequently done for tumors of female genital tract. Abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB) is one of the most common indications for hysterectomy. Histopathology is essential to confirm these common causes, but also helps to identify rare causes and to rule out malignancy. This study aims to anaylse the age pattern, clinical indications, clinicopathological correlation of hysterectomy cases along with distribution, causes and histopathological pattern of endometrial lesions in AUB. Material and Methods: The present study is a retrospective study done at Trichy SRM medical college hospital with hysterectomies done between January 2018 to November 2019 been included in the study. Clinical and Histopathological details were recorded, analysed and compared. Results: Of the 826 cases, Total abdominal hysterectomy was the most common surgery. The age varied from 21 to 85 with fourth decade as the most common age. Fibroid uterus and AUB were the most common clinical indication. Histopathology revealed leiomyoma as the most common diagnosis. About 95.5% cases correlated with clinical diagnosis. Of the 258 AUB cases, 100 had pure endometrial pathology and 31 cases showed combined endometrial and other pathologies. Totally 76 cases of endometrial hyperplasia were identified and 65 presented with AUB. About 11.6% AUB patients had malignancy and endometrial carcinomacomprised of 3.9% cases. Conclusion: Histopathological evaluation is essential to substantiate the clinical findings, identify missed pathologies, establishing a definitive etiology thereby aiding effective treatment of the pathology.

Existing corporate taxes distort many aspects of firm behavior. To the extent that the corporate tax rate is lower than personal tax rates, taxes favor corporate activity, and favor retaining earnings rather than paying earnings out to employees and investors. Multinationals can even avoid these taxes by shifting income into tax havens. Given the ease with which multinationals can evade tax, the existing income tax structure faces major pressures, as reflected in average statutory corporate tax rates halving in recent decades. The Element speculates on alternative tax structures that will avoid these problems.

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