Abstract not available

由於都市發展與產業發展具有相互影響之關係，不同之都市型態會吸引不同的產業，且不同的產業結構也將影響都市的發展，因此在探討經濟發展時，需要同時考慮都市與產業條件，以符合相互影響之關係。 早期台灣的製造業，或可稱為「勞力密集傳統產業」的潛力來自於低廉的勞動力，一旦優勢不再，廠商關廠、外移，對於都市發展的產業需求將有所衝擊，依據當地的產業發展條件，可能因此而沒落，或是轉型成不同的產業發展。此外，當政府有鑑於勞力密集產業的競爭力不再，提倡產業升級，發展技術密集的高科技產業，雖然能夠創造國家整體的經濟成長，但是也因其所需的高技術，並無法吸收原傳統產業過剩的勞力。再者，因早期產業政策、地方資源與歷史因素等有不同的產業發展型態，使各都市的產業發展條件與產業優勢不一，因此，新竹科學園區的成功，並無法完全的移植到全部的地方發展，在生產條件無法配合的情況下，不僅產業發展困難，更會影響都市的整體發展。因此在台灣經濟轉型時期，各都市應如何尋找自己優勢之產業，為本研究的重點。因此本研究將從都市的產業條件與發展優勢來分析，以做為都市發展其有利產業之依據，進而提升其生產效率，並促進都市發展。 在考量都市與產業交互關係屬於多投入與多產出的特性，將利用「資料包絡分析法」（Data Envelopment Analysis, DEA），依據生產要素與產出，來評估都市內產業發展的效率，期望得出都市內發展相對有效率的產業。 本研究共分為四大部分：第一部份從都市產業發展理論與相關文獻，以及生產理論與相關文獻的探討，選取衡量生產效率的相關變數，以作為實證的依據；第二部份為研究方法之設計，包括資料包絡分析法（DEA）之基本理論與應用模式內容與模型之建立；第三部份則依據研究目的所選取之模型變數，評估各都市之產業生產效率，以及利用DEA分析法所估計出之效率值，為被解釋變數，利用迴歸模型衡量外生變數對其的邊際效果；最後針對本研究進行之實證分析，作一綜合性的概述，配合都市產業發展提出建議。 根據實證結果與分析，歸納出本研究之結論如下： 一、依據都市產業效率評估分析，製造業中的傳統產業類、基礎（重化）工業類與技術密集產業類均普遍在北部區域的生產效率表現較理想，這與製造業現況中，北部區域的製造業員工數與產值均為全區域最高之情況顯示，北部區域不僅是產業的集中地區，其生產情況也較理想。誰然依據比較利益原則，產業集中於北部區域，對於台灣整體的產業發展有利，但卻不利於區域的發展，只會更加促使人口往北部區域的集中，長期將影響區域均衡與國家成長。 二、由都市規模因素普遍對產業生產效率，反映出大都市對於傳統產業的負面影響，但卻有利於基礎（重化）工業與技術密集產業的生產效率的結果，符合聚集經濟的相關文獻中對於近來的都市產業發展，有傳統產業朝向小都市而高科技產業卻朝向大都市發展的趨勢。 三、根據都市產業結構的多樣化對於產業生產的技術效率是呈現負面影響，與早期學者出台灣製造業呈現地方化經濟的情況相符合。 四、從產業專業化（集中度）能夠提升產業生產效率。符合MAR與Porter對都市產業的專業化將加速都市產業成長的預測，顯示產業生產應該要朝向較大規模與專業化發展。 因為各產業與各都市的發展條件不同，應有不同的產業政策，因此本文在瞭解都市特性對於都市產業發展效率所造成之影響，俾以藉此提供相關決策者在進行都市產業發展政策時的參考依據。

This thesis explored the measurement of performance of New Zealand tertiary education institutions (TEIs) and the demand for their services. This involved analysing the research performance of New Zealand universities, analysing the productive efficiency of New Zealand TEIs and examining the choice of provider by bachelor’s degree starters. Bibliometric data was used to measure the research productivity of New Zealand universities. This showed that following a fall during the early 2000s, the research productivity of New Zealand universities increased following the introduction of the Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF). A multi-dimensional analysis of university research performance between 2000 and 2005 showed that no individual university was top in all four of the performance measures assessed. The overall performance of three universities, Massey University, Lincoln University and Auckland University of Technology, were noticeably below that of the other five universities. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was then applied to input and output data of New Zealand TEIs to analyse their productive efficiency. In 2006, polytechnics that had: low levels of bachelor’s degree provision, were not regionally based, had a high proportion of subcontracting and were larger institutions, achieved higher levels of pure technical efficiency. The analysis showed that several polytechnics could improve their technical efficiency by reducing their scale of operations. In polytechnics, higher technical efficiency was associated with better financial performance. A number of technically efficient polytechnics struggled financially, indicating that the overall efficiency of the polytechnic sector was not high, or the funding model they operate under is not appropriate. The analysis also showed that decreasing bachelor’s degree provision, poor financial performance in the previous year, an increase in provision of community education, was associated with higher growth in total factor productivity between 1996 and 2006. The application of DEA to Australasian university data between 1997 and 2005 showed that New Zealand universities performed relatively well in terms of relative pure technical efficiency, compared with their Australian counterparts. However, the total factor productivity of New Zealand universities increased at a lower rate, on average, than that of the Australian Group of Eight and newer Australian universities. The application of DEA to a dataset of the participating TEIs in the PBRF showed that polytechnics had lower technical efficiency, on average, than other TEIs. The choices of bachelor’s degree starters in 2006 were analysed for evidence of a lack of parity of esteem between university and polytechnic degrees. The results showed that a lack of parity of esteem between polytechnic and university degrees may be influencing student choices. Students from higher deciles schools, with higher secondary school qualifications, Asians, students who travel for study, were all more likely to enrol in a university to start a bachelor’s degree. There was less clear cut evidence of a lack of parity of esteem between selected groupings of New Zealand universities. However, there did appear to be a lack of parity of esteem between the four older metropolitan universities and the two newest universities, with signs the former were held in higher esteem.

Demand fluctuations will bias the measurement of productivity and efficiency. This dissertation described three ways to characterize the effect of demand fluctuations. First, a two-dimensional efficiency decomposition (2DED) of profitability is proposed for manufacturing, service, or hybrid production systems to account for the demand effect. The first dimension identifies four components of efficiency: capacity design, demand generation, operations, and demand consumption, using Network Data Envelopment Analysis (Network DEA). The second dimension decomposes the efficiency measures and integrates them into a profitability efficiency framework. Thus, each component's profitability change can be analyzed based on technical efficiency change, scale efficiency change and allocative efficiency change. Second, this study proposes a proactive DEA model to account for demand fluctuations and proposes input or output adjustments to maximize effective production. Demand fluctuations lead to variations in the output levels affecting measures of technical efficiency. In the short-run, firms can adjust their variable resources to address the demand fluctuates and perform more efficiently. Proactive DEA is a short-run capacity planning method, proposed to provide decision support to a firm interested in improving the effectiveness of a production system under demand uncertainty using a stochastic programming DEA (SPDEA) approach. This method improves the decision making related to short-run capacity expansion and estimates the expected value of effectiveness given demand. In the third part of the dissertation, a Nash-Cournot equilibrium is identified for an oligopolistic market. The standard assumption in the efficiency literature that firms desire to produce on the production frontier may not hold in an oligopolistic market where the production decisions of all firms will determine the market price, i.e. an increase in a firm's output level leads to a lower market clearing price and potentially-lower profits. Models for both the production possibility set and the inverse demand function are used to identify a Nash-Cournot equilibrium and improvement targets which may not be on the strongly efficient production frontier. This behavior is referred to as rational inefficiency because the firm reduces its productivity levels in order to increase profits.

The objective of this paper is to explain the variation in efficiency of credit unions over the past decade. This study creates an evaluation metric for credit union performance by using a nonparametric technique called data envelopment analysis (DEA). Efficiency is based on the credit unions ability to maximize the members’ benefits by providing adequate loans and savings accounts at low prices while minimizing the resources used. The sample consists of 704 credit unions from 2001 to 2010. Several environmental characteristics were found to influence efficiency. The findings demonstrate evidence for economies of scale as number of members, average savings size, and total assets all positively influence efficiency. The results also indicate that federal charter, number of branches, share of real estate loans, and average loan size negatively correlate with efficiency.

To date there is little evidence on the relationship between property-liability (P/L) insurer’s frontier efficiency measures and the market. The establishment of a connection is important since there are a number of difficulties associated with measuring P/L insurer efficiency—there is uncertainty regarding the firm’s primary objective, the main services produced, and the measurement of these services. The main goal of the dissertation is to assess the robustness of two approaches to measuring P/L insurer efficiency —the production approach (Cummins and Weiss, 2001) and the flow approach (Brockett, et al, 2004). A secondary objective is to evaluate the performance of two proxies for the production approach’s risk-bearing and “real” loss-services output to observe whether unexpected losses leads to a distortion of efficiency. A third purpose is to determine the sensitivity of the use of the policyholder supplied debt capital input in the production approach. A fourth aim is to evaluate the performance of the range adjusted measure (RAM) of efficiency compared to the traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) method. A final objective is to assess the connection of accounting-based efficiency to market performance measures. The empirical evidence suggests that unexpected losses do not appear to overly distort the efficiency analysis. The production approach is not extraordinarily sensitive to the inclusion (or exclusion) of the policyholder supplied debt capital input. Traditional DEA measures of efficiency, in comparison to RAM, are more accurate predictors of insolvency and are more highly related to traditional measures of firm performance. Overall, the flow approach is not consistent with the production approach. Firms identified as highly efficient by the production approach are found to be significantly less likely to fail, indicating that the production approach is consistent with the economic reality of P/L insurance market. In contrast, high flow efficient firms are often found to have a higher proclivity to fail. Production approach efficiency is also more highly correlated to traditional measures of firm performance than flow measures of efficiency. The accounting-based production approach is directly related to market measures of firm performance, while flow efficiency is inversely related or unrelated to these measures.

This paper presents a statistical framework for estimating output-specific efficiencies for the 2-output case based upon a DEA frontier estimate. The key to the approach is the concept of target output-mix. Being usually unobserved, target output-mixes of firms are modelled as missing data. Using this concept the relevant data generating process can be formulated. The resulting likelihood function is analytically intractable, so a data augmented Bayesian approach is proposed for estimation purposes. This technique is adapted to the present purpose. Some implementation issues are discussed leading to an empirical Bayes setup with data informed priors. A prove of scale invariance is provided. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

In this paper we propose one approach to implement environmental standards into Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and in this way to measure its regulatory impact on eco-efficiency of firms. As one basic feature of DEA models lies in the exogeneity of inputs, desirable and undesirable outputs, it is not possible to introduce environmental constraints for these parameters directly into existing DEA models. Therefore, we implement the environmental standard in a bounded-variable way, which allows constraints on the efficiency frontier. The regulatory impact is assessed as difference in eco-efficiency scores before and after fictive introduction of an environmental standard. Furthermore, we distinguish between weak and strong disposability of undesirable outputs and develop according models. Assessing the regulatory impact of environmental standards in advance provides support for environmental policy makers in choosing appropriate instruments and in adjusting the intensity of regulation. Moreover, the procedure can be applied in a wide range of markets, as the proposed model framework offers several options. Policy makers can choose between different environmental standards and different disposability assumptions. (author's abstract) / Series: Working Papers / Research Institute for Regulatory Economics

Any one organization or agency, whether for-profit or non-profit organizations that are seeking to enhance their efficiency, improve production technology, thereby achieving the goal of improving productivity, with a view to the current competitive environment. Efficiency measurement is very important, it can help decision makers understand whether the organization achieve technology progress and innovation objectives. In recent years, the government and civil organizations devote themselves to measure the change of organizational efficiency and productivity. Academia constantly research and develop various models of efficiency and productivity analysis, and application to actual cases analysis. Efficiency and productivity analysis has leapt to the mainstream of production economic studies. This empirical study adopts the census data of the classification of the Chamber of Commerce and industry of manufacturing in Taiwan, using two-stage approach to explore dynamic agglomeration externalities of 2-digit manufacturing. In the first stage, we apply dynamic network data envelopment analysis and Malmquist productivity index to calculate static efficiency and dynamic efficiency of 2-digit manufacturing. In the second stage, we apply Tobit regression analysis to verify a manufacturing geographical concentration effects on productive efficiency. We also adopt two-stage least squares methods (2SLS) to validate dynamic agglomeration externalities effects of manufacturing. Based on the results of this empical study, we propose some specific practical policy alternatives and management strategies. In the last 20 years, the strctures of Taiwan manufacturing industries have significant changes, the livelihood industry and of the sharp decline in industry, the chemical industry, electronics industry, metal machinery industry is growing fast. There is an obvous agglomeration tendency toward northern Taiwan region. In static efficiency, labour-intensive manufacturing industries tend to be diminishing return to scale rendering, while knowledge-intensive industries are rendering the increasing trend. The scale efficiency of eastern region manufacturing is very low, resulting in their productive efficiency significantly lower than the northern, central, southern regional manufacturing. In dynamic efficiency, the total factor productivity (TFP) of Taiwan manufacturing industries are rendering the growth trend, achieving the goal of innovation effect. However, the technical efficiency of manufacturing are rendering decline trend. This study found that the most important impact factor on production efficiency is the internal economies of scale. Localization economies, urbanization economies, and other static agglomeration economies external effect gradually reduce. Moreover, this study also found that Taiwan manufacturing industries have notable MAR professional dynamic external economics and notable Porter regional competitive dynamic external economic effect. Besides, Taiwan manufacturing industries has noticeable human resource dynamic external economics, but we also found low wages is beneficial to regional economic growth. We should not expand to explain Taiwan manufacturing-sweatshops. This phenomenon may be caused by high salaries, high rents, high land costs and high labor costs, these factors offset the interest of agglomeration economies. Finally, Taiwan and mainland China signed a cross-strait economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) in Chongqing on 29 June 2010. Taiwan manufacturing inevitably be impacted and influenced by ECFA. This is an important topic worthy of further study and discussion in the future.

The Medical Care Network Plan was implemented by the DOH since July 1985. Taiwan area was divided into 17 medical regions. The objective of this plan was to shrink the gap of medical resources between medical regions in order to avoid the resources being repeatedly invested and wasted. Now, the unequally distributed medical resources have been improved. What is more, checking the efficiency of the use of medical resources has become an important task. Therefore, the purpose for this study is to evaluate the efficiency of the use of medical resources in Taiwan area's 17 medical regions. The results of this study can provide the government for reference in making decision of the medical resources policy. This study analyses a secondary data of the medical care network in 2003 to evaluate the efficiency of Taiwan area's 17 medical regions by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Further, it uses the inferential statistics to identify the relationships about the efficiency and geographical locations, medical resource indicators, the ratio of public hospitals, and medical quality indicators. The results of this study are as follows: 1. Keelung, Ilan, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Changhua, and Pingtung medical regions were relatively efficient in the overall efficiency. In the overall efficiency, Taipei, Taichung, Yunlin, Chiayi, and Kaohsiung medical regions were inefficient because of the scale inefficiency. 2. There was significant difference in overall efficiency in the 4 geographical regions (north, central, south and east regions) which the 17 medical regions belong to. Furthermore, the north region was more efficient than south and east region. 3. The relatively inefficient medical regions invested more inputs of medical resources, but they produced fewer outputs. The relatively efficient medical regions provided higher medical quality and productivity. 4. The medical region which had higher overall efficiency score showed the better medical quality, and lower ratio of public hospitals. On the contrary, the ratio of public hospitals was higher, the medical quality was lower. 5. The ways to improve the input variables of those inefficient medical regions were as follow: Taipei, Taichung, Yunlin, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung,Taitung, and Hualian medical regions needed to reduce the input variable in ¡§the ratio of physician to population¡¨. Taoyuan, Nantou, and Chiayi medical regions needed to reduce the input variable in ¡§medical benefit payments¡¨. According to the results of this study, it is highly suggested that the government should probe the distribution and utilization of medical resources of the inefficient medical regions in order to know the reasons why these regions were inefficient. That can provide the government for reference in making decision of the policy. We wish the utilization of medical resources in each medical region would be more economical and more efficient.