This study evaluates how prehispanic central Mexicans made stone tools—primarily from obsidian—and used them in their homes over a period of 3,000 years. Mesoamerican scholars have often assumed the functional purposes of different lithic tools based on their material or technological attributes. Most limit their studies to single sites and extrapolate broader reconstructions of economic activities. I assess stone tool functions and associated economic activities through technological analyses of more than 43,000 lithic artifacts and, in addition, a feasibility study for high magnification use-wear analysis utilizing 589 of these artifacts from multiple household contexts in the central Mexican villages of Amomoloc (900-650 B.C.), Tetel (750-500 B.C.), and Mesitas (600-500 B.C.); the town of La Laguna (600 B.C.-A.D. 150); the city of Teotihuacan (A.D. 200-550); and the Aztec village of Cihuatecpan (A.D. 1150-1550). I determine that pressure blades—the most common tool form—were multifunctional. They were regularly modified via pressure trimming or notching and recycled through bipolar percussion to suit specific tasks. Blade production error rates decreased consistently, especially after the invention of core platform grinding near the end of the Classic period (A.D. 100-600). Preliminary results of the use-wear feasibility study suggest that certain tools became associated with specific tasks. Scrapers were mainly used to produce goods of maguey, wood, and hide. People came to use hafted atlatl dart points and bifacial knives almost exclusively for hunting and meat butchering tasks, respectively, and smaller bifacial drills mostly for shell craft production. Bipolar tools created through anvil percussion were more common during the Formative period (1500 B.C.-A.D. 100), when they were probably used as expedient kitchen utensils. Obsidian tools in central Mexico were not exclusively staple goods. Ritual bloodletting implements are spatially associated with communal altars and commoner and elite residences, but after the Epiclassic period (A.D. 600-900) bloodletting was restricted primarily to temples. Likewise, although weaponry was common during the Classic through Postclassic periods, and jewelry was relatively common during the Late Postclassic period (A.D. 1325-1521), in prehispanic times their spatial distributions were much more restricted across site contexts compared to obsidian staple goods. I demonstrate that in prehispanic central Mexico stone tools were produced and used primarily in household spaces, contrary to models that have emphasized sponsorship by elites or religious institutions. Residents produced stone tools in their homes primarily to satisfy their own needs during the Formative period. As rising populations contributed to urban densities and the development of marketplace economies, household lithic production increased to satisfy broader consumer demand. Producing households often specialized in blade production or followed a multicrafting strategy, in which the scale of production exceeded their own needs.

The household has always been a place of information consumption. While much is known about the modern household as a consumer of information and adopter of information-related technologies, virtually nothing is known about how the household -as a collectivity - processes and manages its information. This research represents the first systematic study of the household as a human information system and presents an understandingtype theory of household information practices. Using dimensional analysis (including theoretical sampling) as proposed by Schatzman (1991), the information practices of eleven households (28 householders) were explored. Each householder completed a questionnaire to identify the information and information-related devices and services used in the household. This was followed by an unstructured group interview that explored the information practices in the household. Analysis of the questionnaires and interviews revealed that within a household it is individual householders who process and manage information. They do so because information has a role in their life, that is, particular information is meaningful for them. Each householder thus devises their own individual information practices, representing the unique way in which a householder comes to live with information. Household information practices are the sum of these individual information practices. They are mediated by two enabling processes - taking charge and negotiating - and nine dimensions of action. Six of the dimensions affect the information practices of individual householders - which are themselves a dimension - while the final two represent, respectively, the consequences of living with and without information. All processes and dimensions operate against, and interact with, a changing structural context of information, technology and society. As a result, each household has a characteristic mode for dealing with information. The centrality of negotiation in developing household information practices indicates that the practices are socially constructed and represent an emergent phenomenon. This, in turn, suggests that the household as an information system is a negotiated order. Insights from the research can be applied to other types of organisations and other aspects of the Information Systems discipline. Areas of further work are identified to expand upon the exploratory nature of this research.

Both economic and psychological research provides strong evidence that unemployment adversely affects a person's mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing, which in turn may impair his/her ability to regain employment. Studies also suggest a person's "psychological capital" (personality traits that influence the productivity of labour) may mediate (1) the impact of unemployment on wellbeing and facilitate re-employment. While the effects of unemployment have been well documented, the simultaneous relationship between wellbeing and labour market status and the influencing role of psychological capital have received much less attention, requiring further investigation. There is still concern in the literature that "the exact nature of the interrelationships between labour market experience and mental health remains unclear and complicated by questions over the direction of causality and heterogeneous impacts across individuals." (Dockery, 2006, p. 2) The purpose of this research is to explore the interrelationship between labour market status, wellbeing, and psychological capital in more detail. The thesis combines key concepts from various economic and psychological theories, each partially describing how labour market status, wellbeing, and psychological capital interact with each other. The validity of the integrated model is then tested by estimating structural equations for labour market status and wellbeing using cross-sectional and longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Survey is a broad social and economic survey that focuses on family and household formation, income and work. The survey contains economic, psychological, and demographic data with sound psychometric qualities for a large sample of working aged Australians that makes it well suited to this type of analysis. As well as the regression analyses, the results of a case study conducted with a group of jobseekers at an employment agency are also reported. The study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of personal development training for the unemployed (designed to improve psychological capital), and its subsequent influence on their ability to regain employment. While the research was halted before completion, some valuable insights were gleamed from the study, and these warrant discussion. Findings of the research indicate a simultaneous relationship exists between labour market status and wellbeing. Individuals with healthier wellbeing are more likely to be employed, and employment contributes to healthier wellbeing. The results also indicate psychological capital is an important variable influencing wellbeing, partially mediating the impact of unemployment on wellbeing. Employed individuals have significantly higher psychological capital than those who are unemployed or not in the labour force, or those who transition in and out of employment. Psychological capital appears to be a relatively stable, but somewhat malleable, personality construct that does not vary greatly for individuals experiencing changes in labour market status (LMS). People who develop poor psychological capital during youth may therefore be predisposed to a higher risk of being unemployed when they enter the labour market. The results suggest programs/policies that foster healthier wellbeing and psychological capital during youth, or repair damaged psychological capital once in the labour market, could help lower unemployment or the duration of unemployment. Recent Australian government policy initiatives designed to improve labour force participation and productivity by enhancing human capital are likely to be more effective if they also target psychological capital. The research also highlights shortcomings in mainstream economic theory, which are discussed along with the weaknesses of the study, and opportunities for further research. (1) A mediator effect (or indirect effect) involves one or more "intervening variables" transmitting some or all of the causal effects of prior variables (e.g. unemployment) onto subsequent variables (e.g. wellbeing). See: Byrne, 2001).

It is a conventional wisdom that since the start of the Chinese economic reform in 1978, the domestic saving structure in China has changed significantly. Previous studies of household saving in China (for example: Qian, 1988, Feltenstein et al, 1990, and Wakabayashi and Mackellar, 1999) have usually relied upon the Keynesian absolute-income hypothesis, Duesenberry's relative-income hypothesis, and Friedman's permanent-income hypothesis. This thesis uses the Modigliani-Brumberg life-cycle hypothesis to examine the determinants of household saving behavior in the Peoples' Republic of China during the period 1978 to 2003. The research uses modern cointegration techniques to examine the impact on saving rates of economic growth, age dependency, wealth, the real interest rate, social security payments and unemployment (as a proxy for income uncertainty). Autoregressive distributed lag models are constructed and tested. The results find that economic growth, the real interest rate and social security payments have the expected effect with significant parameters; age dependency has the expected sign but in one model is not statistically significant; and that unemployment is not significant. The most surprising result is that increases in household wealth are associated with increased saving rates, which may help explain very high economic growth rates in China post 1978.

The patterns of paid and unpaid work adopted by migrants families with dependent children are more or less similar to that of prevailing working pattern of men and women of Australian born couples. A case study with 28 couple families, 14 husbands and 14 wives who migrated from Nepal under "skill" or "professional" category and the literature review on paid and unpaid work of couple families with dependent children show that in both families the trend of change of working pattern in paid and unpaid work is similar. With the increased participation of married women in the paid labour force, men increased participation in household work. There is increased household work for both husbands and wives, but women tend to do more household "inside" and childcare work than men. In the mean time, men tend to do more work in the "masculine" sphere of "outside" work in house maintenance, repair and car care. The only factor that differentiates working pattern of migrant families with Australian born families is the experience of migration and the category that they migrated. The change of working practice of paid and unpaid work of migrant families are affected by the change of family type from extended family to two generational family and their education and previous work experience that they brought along with them. Professional migrants who migrated family as a "unit" migrated spouse and dependent children together and they made their own decision to migrate, unlike other categories of migrants who migrated from political or economic pressure. One of the important experiences of migrant families is that there are new opportunity, new lifestyle, new intimacy and companionship and new sharing of work between husbands and wives after migration. At the same time, there are losses of extended family relatives, close friends and cultural event which affects their day to day lives. There are Australian based friends who provided support in the initial period of migration but these families do not provide regular assistance or support which family relatives provided in Nepal.

摘要 傳統之補貼政策大都只依所得的多寡來從事補貼，此補貼政策只適用於政府的補貼對象為個人。一旦政府的補貼對象為整個家庭時，傳統的補貼政策是否亦適用於對家庭之補貼就值得商榷。Deaton曾在1997年於其書中寫道由N人所組成之家庭會有家庭規模經濟的產生。故政府如再以傳統的補貼政策來從事補貼，則顯然會忽略家庭規模經濟 － 此影響家庭是否貧窮的另一個重要指標。另外由Lanjouw和Ravallion於1995年之實証分析亦可知家庭規模經濟的大小確實和貧窮相關。所以政府在對家庭從事補貼時，除了應考慮家庭所得的多寡外，也應考量到家庭規模經濟的大小，如此才能使真正貧窮的家庭獲得較多的補貼。 本篇論文的目的，即是在探討當政府考量到家庭規模經濟的大小來對家庭從事補貼時，隨著家庭規模經濟的改變，家庭消費行為將會如何改變。此外我們也比較了傳統的補貼政策與本文所探討之補貼政策間之異同。 目　錄 第一章 前言 ．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．1 第二章 文獻回顧 ．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．2 第三章 家庭消費行為之分析 ．．．．．．．．． 5 第一節 模型簡介．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．6 第二節 基本模型之比較靜態分析．．．．．．．．．．．7 第三節 本章小結 ．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．13 第四章 補貼政策下家庭消費行為之分析 ．．．．14 第一節 價格補貼下家庭消費行為之分析 ．．．．．．．16 第二節 定額補貼下家庭消費行為之分析 ．．．．．．．33 第三節 價格補貼與定額補貼之比較 ．．．．．．．．．50 第四節 考慮庭規模經濟之補貼政策與傳 統補貼政策之比較 ．．．．．．．．．．．．． 58 第五節 本章小結 ．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．66 第五章 結論 ．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．69 參考文獻 ．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．71

本研究透過多元方法(mutimethod)之研究設計，第一階段整理運用官方統計性資料，分析民國76年至85年台北市低收入戶人口特質，並作為第二階段質性研究之基礎；第二階段運用立意取樣，進行深度訪談及參與觀察，分析台北市低收入戶日常生活文化內涵。 　　在低收入戶人口特質部份，本研究歸納出下列重要發現與趨勢：1.「個人性因素」的低收入戶歸因；2.低收入戶人口涵蓋度穩定且流動率低；3.「低收入戶女性化」的現象不顯著；4.低收入戶集居化、都市邊陲化之趨勢；5.低收入戶高齡化的趨勢；6.較高等的教育程度已無法保證能夠脫離低收入戶；7.「家庭解組」因素可預測低收入戶之發生；8.低收入戶健康狀況呈兩極化發展；9.低收入戶之基本家庭設備已逐年普及化；10.低收入戶自有住宅比例逐年降低；11.低收入戶戶量減少之趨勢；12.「工作中貧窮」的趨勢。 　　在低收入戶文化分析部份，本研究運用參與觀察法分析台北市低收入戶文化內涵，俾供後續研究檢證與修正；另以深度訪談歸納分析台北市低收入戶的五大類型：1.原來貧窮；2.低度就業或失業；3.殘障或久病不癒；4.家庭解組或負擔家計者死亡；5.年老而獨居，並分別針對不同之低收入戶類型提出政策因應策略之建議。

自1990年台商陳貴州先生之父親即已故董事長陳伴助先生，早期於馬來西亞投資第一家台灣商製造業「鴻如工業公司」，工廠設立於馬來西亞當地從事塑膠射出、模組、生產等相關的產品製造產業。1996年台商陳貴州先生獨資創立馬來西亞第二家台灣貿易商公司『TAIHOYO SDN.BHD.台灣桂洲(馬來西亞)企業有限公司』。 TAIHOYO創立初期為台灣品牌嬰幼兒用品的馬來西亞區域代理商，而TAIHOYO的行銷策略逐漸轉型成自有品牌的營運模式。2009年5月引進台灣的『TAIHOYO PaPa Go V-BOT智慧型吸塵器』到馬來西亞成為總代理，其供應廠商為台灣松騰實業有限公司。在TAIHOYO因應當地市場策略營運之下，目前營業額己經超過6,000台的銷售佳績，目前銷售通路擴展至馬來西亞各大百貨公司、大型3C電器百貨、國際傳銷商企業等。並且以TAIHOYO自有品牌直接在馬來西亞之中高階家庭市場經營進口銷售，品牌銷售業績也逐年上升。 而論文研究計畫將對個人服務企業-台商TAIHOYO桂洲(馬來西亞)企業有限公司的的『TAIHOYO PaPa Go V-BOT智慧型吸塵器』進行實務個案探討，並合併質化的分析研究，取材自交換的對象與客觀的角度來探討TAIHOYO配合的通路商與製造商進行市場經驗的訪談，根據國立政治大學商學院國際經濟與貿易學系教授-邱志聖(2010)提出的策略行銷4C分析，輔以理論與架構應用，予以逐項分析比較及歸納。 因此，本論文研究目的在於解析目前TAIHOYO馬來西亞中高階家庭市場的核心競爭能力，思考未來要如何因國際市場變動及維持長期的競爭優勢而積極邁進。TAIHOYO經營理念本著提供顧客最便利的生活方針「For Easy Life」為目標，並且朝向建立國際精品品牌的經營目標前進。 / Since 1990, Mr. Chen Ban-Zhu who is Mr. Chen Gui-Zou’s father invested 「Hong Road SDN. BHD」 in Malaysia, The company is specialized in plastic injection related manufacture.『TAIHOYO SDN.BHD.』 was established by Mr. Chen Gui-Zou in 1996. The business of TAIHOYO was defined for Taiwanese baby product agency in Malaysian region in early stage.Then the business model of TAIHOYO was changed to own-brand from 2008.Mr. Chen Gui-Zou introduced “TAIHOYO PaPa Go V-BOT”auto vacuum cleaner with “TAIHOYO” trademark to Malaysia in May, 2009.” TAIHOYO PaPa Go V-BOT”was successful into Mid & high classic household appliance market.There are over 6000 sets sales until now and several department store、household chain of retail stores for sales channel,The revenue is increasing year by year. The thesis will be focus on The “TAIHOYO PaPa Go V-BOT Smart Vacuum Cleaner" of my services company - Taiwan TAIHOYO Guizhou (Malaysia) Enterprise Co., Ltd. by case studies, combined qualitative analysis, interview with the distributors and manufacturers for market experience, those analysis of each item supplemented by the "4C Strategic Marketing Analysis" theory of professor Jyh-Shen Chiou in college of commerce, NCCU (2010) The purpose of this thesis is to resolve the current TAIHOYO competitiveness of high & Mid-end consumer market in Malaysia, how the company act immediately by international market change and how to maintain a competitive advantage. So TAIHOYO business philosophy is to provide customers the most convenient life "For Easy Life" as the goal and towards the operation of an international boutique brands.

<p>The general aim of this essay is to situate the AIDS-epidemic in its socio-economic context, in order to see how HIV/AIDS affects households at a micro level. The material for the study was gathered during a minor field study conducted in Mwanza City, Tanzania.  The majority of the population in Tanzania is not part of the formal economic sector and does not enjoy the security of public health care, pension and other forms of support. Instead of being employed in the formal sector these people draw on different informal sources to secure their livelihoods. This has created a context where people are vulnerable in a situation of crisis. Since the 1980s - when the first cases of HIV were recorded in Tanzania - the epidemic has grown and HIV now constitutes one of the major threats to livelihood security.  But what impact does HIV/AIDS have on livelihood strategies in an urban setting? And how does the AIDS-epidemic affect society in general? Theses questions are investigated using qualitative methods and the data is analyzed by means of a livelihood framework.  From the gathered material I could conclude that HIV/AIDS indeed affects the livelihood strategies of afflicted households. Social capital – in the shape of support from family, friends and other networks – turned out to be an important resource. There is, however, an inequity in access to this resource. Stigmatisation has a negative impact on the social capital and increases the vulnerability of the afflicted households.  The essay deals with these issues in a wider perspective in relation to the role of the state and other actors and it is concluded with a discussion on the role of livelihood studies in the prevailing discourse on HIV/AIDS.</p>

<p>This study addresses the question of change in household structure and the reproduction of “life from day to day”. It is based on structuration theory, time-geography and Allan Pred’s theory of place as historically contingent process. Large households are viewed as tokens of the early modern era, and the appearance of small households can therefore be seen as signs of modernisation. But the decline in size of the average household was not dramatic, it went from 3.53 people per household in 1760 to 3.31 people in 1830. By the composition of different occupational groups in the city in 1760 and 1830, it is evident that the decline of the textile industry, the low activity in the building trades and the decrease of residential sailors – and the subsequent rise of petty trade and traditional handicrafts – gave a strong influx of traditional elements to the evolution of the household. In contrast to this there were a number of “new” or more modern elements that can be seen as precursors to the structure of daily life in the modern era. One of these was a rising number of households which were small and headed by people who earlier in history would have been household members – and not heads of households. The structure of daily life and its reproduction from day-to-day is also analysed in the study. This pattern was both affected by certain changes in the overall household structure, and by two phenomena that directly had an impact on the recreation of life from day to day. The first of these was the “food money”, a substitution of money for the right to food in the employers house, and the second was a move from the right to lodgings in the employers’ home to the need of living quarters elsewhere. Both of these phenomena acted on the “structure of daily life”, and helped to alter the focus of daily life, that is to turn it away from the productive households and put more attention on the streets and on the households that only served as reproductive units.</p>