Costa-Font, Joan; Mas Canal, Núria; Navarro, Patricia
A host of fast-food enterprises are starting to address obesity and diet-related diseases, so as to be part of the solution instead of contributing to this global problem. Obesity has many causes, but as new research by IESE's Núria Mas and others suggests, there is a robust association between globalization and both obesity and calorie intake. Their findings should be relevant to MNCs involved in the sale of products high in sugar, salt, fat or calories.
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Elvira Rojo, Marta; Rodríguez Lluesma, Carlos; Mas Canal, Núria
Economic and demographic forecasts reveal the unsustainability of health-care systems in industrialized countries. Yet it also presents more opportunities for employment, entrepreneurship and improvements in the quality of care. This article identifies best practices in the organization and management of care services for chronic patients and elderly people, based on an ongoing transatlantic research project spearheaded by IESE.
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Mas Canal, Núria; Valentini, G.
What makes a hospital a desirable acquisition target' Hospital size, profitability and reputation are key elements, but technology is also emerging as a critical factor. However, not all hospital technology is created equal, and hospitals on the lookout for acquisition targets must establish exactly what a target's technology might bring to the table.
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Mas Canal, Núria; Cirera, L.; Viñolas, G.
As Spain grapples with its sovereign debt crisis, many are calling for copayment to help stem the growing deficit in the country’s health-care system. This report draws lessons from the copayment systems already in place elsewhere in Europe, Canada and the United States, to suggest how such a model could be implemented in Spain.
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Gual Solé, Jordi; Mas Canal, Núria
Many a company has felt the sharp end of the European Commission’s competition law, the most high-profile case being Microsoft’s 497 million euro fine in 2004. But how fair and consistent is the commission’s application of competition law? IESE professors Jordi Gual and Núria Mas search for bias in the commission’s decisions.
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Mas Canal, Núria
Health care systems are one of many institutions under financial strain worldwide. IESE’s Núria Mas finds that those most under siege are hospitals in the United States providing health care to people who cannot afford it. The rapid rise of managed health care systems poses a threat to these providers of the most basic services.
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Mas Canal, Núria; Seinfeld, Janice
The funding of health care has changed, with managed care becoming the norm in an attempt to control expenditure. One possible side effect of managed health care systems is that hospitals will be reluctant to invest in costly new technologies. IESE's Núria Mas and Janice Seinfeld examine the rate of adoption of 13 technologies in U.S. hospitals and find evidence that this is indeed what happens. But in the drive to save money, what cost to the patient?
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Gual Solé, Jordi; Mas Canal, Núria
Market competition is more sanguine than ever. The European Commission often blocks deals or fines firms for anti-competitive behavior, yet the conditions seem to vary by industry. While we have seen banking institutions overcome entry barriers to compete in a multinational context, we have also witnessed some local telecom operators fall prey to scare tactics and deliver their coveted territory to the big telecom cartel. It would help to know exactly what factors cause an anti-trust commission to block a merger or to punish the larger players for unfair practices. In the paper "Industry Characteristics and Anti-Competitive Behavior: Evidence from the EU," IESE Professors Jordi Gual and Núria Mas use econometrics and statistical equations to evaluate the factors that weigh most heavily on commissions' decision. Do their decisions stem from an intimate knowledge of economics and competition, or is it something else?
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Mas Canal, Núria; Seinfeld, Janice
The U.S. health care market widely adopted managed care in the 1970s to control skyrocketing health costs. Some 30 years later, a key question is how managed care has affected hospitals' willingness and ability to adopt new technologies. The groundbreaking paper, "Is Managed Care Restraining the Adoption of Technology by Hospitals?" by Núria Mas and Janice Seinfeld, studies over 5,000 U.S. hospitals and whether or not they have acquired specific technologies in the fields of radiology, radiation and cardiology. The authors discover that managed care has, indeed, made hospitals more reluctant to purchase new technologies, especially expensive ones. This will save money in the long term, but what will it do to the quality of patient care?
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Cutler, D.M.; Mas Canal, Núria
Does a country that spends more than others necessarily have a better medical system? How could medical systems in different countries be compared? The issue is more complex than it seems. As many medical services are designed not to extend life but to improve the quality of it, mortality is not the best indicator of the output of the medical care system for developed countries. In their paper "Comparing Non-Fatal Health Across Countries: Is the US Medical System Better?" Professor David Cutler of Harvard University and Research Associate Núria Mas of IESE propose a methodology to compare non-fatal health outcomes across countries and present a preliminary comparison of health differences in US, Canada, UK, and Spain. The authors use an innovative methodology for international comparisons of health care systems based on the relative health of those individuals suffering from a certain disease. The findings indicate that the US has not the best health care outcomes across all the diseases: it exhibits high quality of life for some outcomes and low quality of life for others.
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