Background Cancer has been the leading cause of death in the past decade in Taiwan, with breast cancer being the most common type of cancer in females. Very few studies looked at the risk of recurrence in patients who received multidisciplinary team (MDT) care. We analyzed the influence of MDT on the risk of recurrence and death in breast cancer patients. Method In this retrospective study, we included newly diagnosed patients from 2004 to 2010. The study included 9,266 breast cancer patients who were enrolled in MDT care and 9,266 patients who were not. The study used log-rank test to analyze patients’ characteristics, hospital characteristics, cancer staging, and treatment methods to compare the recurrence rates in MDT care and non-MDT care participants. We used Cox proportional hazards model to examine the effect of MDT and associated factors on the risk of recurrence and mortality of breast cancer patients. Results Relative risk of recurrence was lower for patients who received MDT care than for patients who did not (HR, 0.84; 95%CI: 0.70–0.99) after matching. The mortality risk for breast cancer patients with relapse was 8.48 times (95%CI: 7.53–9.54) than that for patients without relapse. Conclusions The relative risk of recurrence and death was significantly lower for breast cancer patients who received MDT care than for those who did not. We suggest that MDT care be implanted in the National Health Policy settings of breast cancer patients.

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In the mainstream real business cycle (RBC) model, labor can be viewed as temporary employment since the firm's demand for labor behaves directly in response to stochastic productivity shocks in each period. This paper provides a tractable way of analyzing fluctuations in permanent and temporary employment over the business cycle, as well as the underlying driving forces. This inclusion of heterogeneity helps reconcile the RBC model with the U.S. data given that temporary employees in general only account for a small proportion of total private‐sector employment (about 2%–3%). We draw an explicit division between permanent and temporary employment and resort to this separation to account for stylized facts that characterize a two‐tier labor market. In particular, with regard to the U.S. labor market, our benchmark model can well explain the motivating facts: (1) temporary employment is much more volatile than permanent employment, (2) the share of temporary employment (the ratio of temporary to aggregate employment) exhibits strong pro‐cyclicality, (3) permanent employment lags by two quarters on average, and (4) the correlation between temporary employment and output is stronger than that involving the permanent counterpart. The quantitative analysis suggests that our proposed channels explain the main facts well and the model further provides plausible reasoning for a firm's labor hoarding. (JEL E24, E32)

This paper examines the effect of a tariff on long-run growth and welfare in a two-country innovation-led growth model. We show that although raising the home country’s tariff reduces the growth and GDP of the foreign country, it will backfire by depressing R&D and growth of the home country. The Nash equilibrium tariffs can be positive, and they are larger when the government expenditure is more beneficial to private production and/or when the productivity of innovation is higher. The presence of positive Nash equilibrium tariffs provides a theoretical explanation for why countries have incentives to implement a tariff policy regardless of its negative effect on growth. Finally, the Nash equilibrium tariffs are higher than the globally optimal tariffs, that is, the levels that maximize the joint welfare of both countries.

We examine the gains from Chinese accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). We provide a new quantitative welfare measure by dividing the manufacturing sector into import and export sub-sectors. We then evaluate how the increased openness caused by China's accession to the WTO effects the importing and exporting sectors. We find surprisingly that the gains to the import sector are larger than the gains to the export sector. Moreover, the size and the dynamic pattern of such gains are different across sectors. Overall, sectors with larger intermediate input shares from import-competing industries and with domestic demands less sensitive to changes in trade costs have higher welfare gains from trade liberalization.Notes: The classification is based on NBS of China, http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/tjbz/hyflbz/and OECD-STAN Structural Analysis Database, http://www.oecd.org/sti/ind/40729523.pdf. Transport industry corresponds to manufacture of motor vehicles and manufacture of transport equipment not elsewhere classified (n.e.c.).