Legal and financial constraints and firm growth: small and medium enterprises (SMEs) versus large enterprises.

We investigate the impact of financing and legal obstacles on firm growth across different firm sizes before and after the global financial crisis (GFC). Using two enterprise surveys in Vietnam, we find firms facing higher financing obstacles have lower sales and employment growth. The smallest firms are the most adversely affected by financing obstacles. The legal obstacles impede the employment growth of SMEs more than large enterprises, which is attributable to the tendency of firms to avoid tall poppy syndrome and the scrutiny of tax officials. Furthermore, we find that the negative effects of financing obstacles on small firms' sales and employment growth reduce in the post-GFC period. We attribute it to a higher proportion of small firms being able to borrow from commercial banks after the financial crisis, partly due to the introduction of new policies supporting SMEs from the Vietnamese Government. Overall, our findings recommend to policymakers that improvement in access to finance is imperative for productivity increases and job creation for small and medium firms.

Clinical characteristics of pediatric HIV-1 patients treated with first-line antiretroviral therapy in Vietnam: a nested case-control study.

OBJECTIVES: Over the past decades, Vietnam has made great strides in reducing the rate of mortality in HIV-related deaths, due to increased access of antiretroviral therapy (ART); however, given the significantly high level of treatment failure (TF), it is essential to identify markers that describe the failure of ART in HIV-1 infected children. METHODS: A nested case-control study was conducted with clinical data collected from 101 HIV-infected children [26 TF and 75 treatment success (TS)] at National Hospital of Pediatrics, Vietnam (2008-2012). RESULTS: The results showed that certain factors including height, weight, vaccination with Hepatitis B, and platelet were significantly different between TF and TS before starting the treatment. In addition, age to start the treatment, CD4 percentage, and opportunistic infection were found to significantly predict treatment outcome most frequently, implying the importance of clinical markers in the treatment response by Cox regression analysis. CONCLUSIONS: There is an inherent complexity within clinical markers that is challenging to determine HIV-pediatric failure and further research is needed to build a complete picture to guide clinical, evidence-based practice.