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On a basis of the development of credit risk models, this study aims to help managers of financial institutions understand the development of the models so as to develop their own model that will provide objective and reasonable references for banks to decide the lending rate. Furthermore, this study used "Utilization of Long-Term Funding" as the object and studied individual cases of approved loans. By using risk neutral evaluation method to study the difference between the lending rate of loans and the risk-free interest rate of public bonds, to extract implied probabilities of default and required credit risk premiums form actual market data on interest rates. These credit risk premiums of model were used to be compared with the actual markups of banks and the results are as follows: 1.Most values stated in credit risk premium are lower than the actual markups for banks usually consider the burden of other capital costs and the factor of liquidity premium when they set the rating for markup. 2.After a loan is approved, the assumed recovery rate upon application will adjust according to the market value of the collateral. When the recovery rate decreases, the expected loss rate on the loan will gradually increase. Moreover, the higher the assumed recovery rate, the larger the corrected expected loss rate after the loan is approved. 3.In recent years, the non-performing rate for banks in Taiwan has reached a record high. Even though banks face less credit risks when they make long-term loans in "Utilization of Long-Term Funding", the probability of default has increased in recent years, which has contributed to the increase of expected loss rate on the long-term loan. In sum, banks still face credits risks that should not be ignored when they manage long-term loans. Thus, it is necessary to improve loan review to enhance the quality of loans and to increase the efficiency of utilization of long-term fund.

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This dissertation addresses the question of choosing the best information alternative in engineering decisions. The decision maker maximizes his expected utility under uncertainty where both the action he takes and the state of the environment determines the payoff earned. The decision maker has an opportunity to gather information about the decision environment a priori at a certain cost. There might be different information alternatives, and the decision maker has to determine which alternative offers "better" prospects for improving the decision. Any decision environment that is characterized by a finite number of outcomes and a discrete probability distribution over the set of outcomes is a lottery. We analyze the value of information on a single outcome and determine the attributes in each piece of information that maximizes its value. Information is valuable when the decision is changed after gathering information. We show that if the number of optimal actions taken under different outcomes scenarios is finite, the decision maker does not require the perfect information. Further, we analyze the relation between the value of information and its determinants, and show a monotonic relation exists for a restricted class of information bundles and utility functions. We use different approaches to evaluate information and analyze the cases where preference reversals occur between different approaches. We observe that a priori pricing of information does not necessarily induce the same ranking with the expected utility approach, however both approaches agree on whether a given piece of information is valuable or not. The second part of this dissertation evaluates information in both static and dynamic coinsurance problems. In static insurance decisions, we analyze the case where the decision maker gathers information about the severity of the risk events and perform ranking of information bundles in a specific class. In dynamic insurance problems, we make a case study to analyze different physical risks that the production facilities are exposed to. The information in dynamic insurance problems involves more detail with regard to the timing of the multiple risk events. We observe that information on events that pose relatively good scenarios for the decision maker have value, however, their value may diminish as their probability of occurance decreases. The decision maker purchases more information as the profitability of the product increases and less information as the initial wealth increases. Furthermore, the decrease cost of insurance does not necessarily make information more valuable as the value is directly related to the change in the decisions rather than the cost of taking a specific action.

This study takes ¡§the Health food of nutrition¡¨, ¡§Cosmetic skin care products¡¨, and ¡§the Articles for cleanness¡¨ as the representatives of direct-selling products. With the network questionnaires to investigate ¡§Consumer characteristics¡¨ of ¡§Netizens¡¨, and how they influence the levels of various perceived risk, and the helpfulness of risk reduction strategies, with SEM to analysis the structure between seven kinds of perceived risk, with the method which was used by Roselius (1971) to measure the helpfulness of risk reduction strategies, and with Cluster, Correlate, ANOVA to analysis the way how ¡§Consumer characteristics¡¨ of ¡§Netizens¡¨ influence perceived risks and risk reduction strategies, and the way how perceived risks influence risk reduction strategies. There are five important conclusions, describing as following: 1. There are differences between three kinds of direct-selling products on the perceived risks of ¡§Performance¡¨, ¡§Psychology¡¨, and ¡§Overall¡¨. 2. In the structure of constructing the path to form the ¡§Overall risk¡¨ by six kinds of risks, the direct and indirect result exists at the same time. 3. Different ¡§Consumer characteristics¡¨ will influence different kinds of perceived risks, and the most meaningful characteristics are ¡§the Types of direct-selling consumers¡¨ and ¡§the attitude toward shopping through direct-selling¡¨. 4. Different ¡§Consumer characteristics¡¨ will influence the helpfulness of different risk reduction strategies, and the most meaningful characteristics are ¡§Age¡¨, ¡§Location¡¨, and ¡§the Types of direct-selling consumers¡¨. 5. Various perceived risks will influence the helpfulness of different risk reduction strategies, and only the helpfulness of ¡§Free sample¡¨ will be enhanced. There are three points about managerial implications and suggestions, describing as following: 1. ¡§Private testing¡¨, ¡§Government testing¡¨, and ¡§Major brand image¡¨ are capable of reducing the ¡§Performance risk¡¨ effectively, and then reduce the levels of ¡§Overall risk¡¨ perception to decrease the perceived sacrifice of product value and to enhance it to the original levels of product value. 2. For the ¡§Netizen¡¨ who are not becoming a member, and not using direct-selling products quite often, ¡§Free sample¡¨ with ¡§Replace product guarantee¡¨ or ¡§Money-back guarantee¡¨ are capable of reducing the levels of risk perception effectively. 3. In the long run, direct-selling companies should endeavor to prove the image of direct-selling, because ¡§the attitude toward shopping through direct-selling¡¨ is an important factor to influence the levels of risk perception and the helpfulness of the risk reduction strategies. And ¡§Industry autonomy¡¨ is a good risk reduction strategy, but not be known by the public. There is a long way for TDSA ¡]Taiwan Direct Selling Association¡^ to go, because popularity and public trust are insufficient. Key words: Consumer characteristics, Perceived risk, Risk reduction strategy

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Texas at Arlington, 2009.

Thesis (J.S.D.)--University of Chicago Law School. / "August 2003." Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 187-197). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 187-197). Also available on the Internet.