Abstract: Taiwan has limited resources graphically, so 97% of primary energy source is dependent on import. Industrial sectors are the main sources to Taiwanese economic development since the 1970s, and the oil is the base of the industries, therefore, the fluctuation of world oil price will lead to the fluctuation of domestic business cycles. Besides, Taiwanese economy has highly depended on international trade; therefore the international business cycles also have influence on the domestic business cycles. Furthermore, the international trade accounts for substantial percentage of balance of international payment. Thus, the change in the international trade will also have impact on Taiwanese economy. This paper investigates the influence of international business cycles to the Taiwanese economy. Using a structural vector-autoregressive model (SVAR model) of a small open economy (OE), our SVAR model includes industry product index (IP) of three regions (Asia, Europe, and North America), world oil price, the Taiwanese industry product index and the Taiwanese trade balance. We try to understand how these factors and their variance decompositions explain Taiwanese business cycles. We chose two periods to do the analysis¡G1974:01-1984:01 and 1985:01-2002:04. To summarize, Taiwanese business cycles were much more impacted by the factors from itself. Besides, we can also say that the impact is neither from nominal nor from real variables. Domestic shocks will be more important in explaining Taiwanese economy. Taiwan has limited resource and depends on import; however, the government will control the oil price. Therefore, we conclude that the world oil price does not have huge impact on Taiwanese economy during our studying period. Asian shocks maybe have more influence than other regions on Taiwanese economy gradually during our studying period.

The objective of this thesis is to explore the development strategy and location factors that affect on Taiwanese firms' investment in China's western region. In the first step of this research, we review literature and analyze China's strategy of western region. Main theories adopted in this study include "Regional Growth Theory", "Location Theory", and "Location Policy". In the second step, we adopt questionnaire survey to analyze the intention of Taiwanese firms' investment in China's western region. The statistical analysis of questionnaire data includes the use of t-test, ANOVA-test, Likert's summated scale analysis, factor analysis, and cluster analysis. They examine the relationship and effectiveness between the location selection and intention of Taiwanese firms' investment in China's western region. Through this research, the conclusions of this thesis are as following: firstly, the strategy " Spot-Axle Model" is adopted for the development of western region. Therefore, the location with railway has high priority in western development. Secondly, a total of 585 questionnaires were mailed to 12 industries of Taiwanese firms in China, out of which 78 firms were responding and 70 of them were valid questionnaires. The results of questionnaire survey are presented below: 1) In Taiwanese firms' views, the Sichuan Province, Chongging Municipality, Yunna Province, and Shaanxi Province are the best regions to investment for China's western region. And the best timing is during the period of 2001-2010s. 2) The certainty factors that affect on investment are labors, property policies, communications, and infrastructure. And market is an uncertainty factor. 3) They are different consideration by Taiwanese firm for the choice of locations between eastern region and western region. Taiwanese firms attach importance to market and labor factors in the eastern region. And the infrastructure, communication, preferential policies are the important factors in the western region. 4) According to the factor analysis, 76% of investment considerations can be explained by 10 factors, including quantity and price of labor and land, communications, public facilities, cultures, agglomeration, markets, minerals, policies, economics, and nature environment, which are selected from 36 factors included in this study. 5) We use cluster analysis to analyze the choice of location by Taiwanese firms. The results show that 58.6% samples belong to the category of "quantity and price of labor and land¡Vmarket oriented", and 18.6% samples belong to "nature¡Vinfrastructure oriented".

The main purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate that people¡¦s self/communities perspective plays a critical role in making democratic political institution fully function. There are many problems such as the corruption of local factions, bribery politics, ethnic conflict, and national identity dispute in Taiwan¡¦s young history of democratic system. This thesis claims that the problems lie on the difference between Western and Chinese perspectives of the relations between self and communities. The perspective of self/communities relations signifies an individual¡¦s thinking of his position in the communities, groups, or society, which he belongs to or lives in, and how he will interact with other people in different communities under different circumstances. Different culture and different historical background result in different perspectives of the relations between self and communities. In chapter Two, we first trace the history of Western political thoughts and the shaping progress of Western perspective of self/communities relations (mainly the perspective from the ¡§individualism¡¨); then, we focus on what the liberal democracy¡¦s perspective of self/communities relations. In chapter Three, we analyze the related concepts of Confucian perspective of self/communities relations, and indicate that Confucianism always teaches people that an individual must benefit the community and be loyal to the superiors. This perspective of self/communities relations supports the imperial institution. But in the last period of Ching Dynasty, some Chinese intellectuals introduced the western democratic thought to the Mainland China, and at last overthrew the imperial institution and intended to build a democratic government. However, these intellectuals and political elites did not realize that the Confucian perspective of self/communities relations has made the practices of Western liberal democracy difficult in both China and Taiwan. Chapter Four indicates that even KMT government moved to Taiwan, and there were still many intellectuals and political elites anticipating the government to build a political institution, but they still did not focus on the difference between Taiwanese perspectives of self/communities relations and Western individualism. So in chapter Five, we indicate that the problems of Taiwan¡¦s democracy were resulted from the ordinary Taiwanese perspective of self/communities relations. Such perspective emphasizes the interpersonal affections (ren-qing), relationship network (guan-xi), and the division between others and us. This research indicates that the perspective of self/communities relations is very important in studying different political culture and its political institution.

Due to the unusual political and economic ties across the Strait, the trade between Taiwan and Mainland China, as two independent economic entities, can be regarded as special ¡§state-to-state¡¨ trade. Logically, Taiwanese enterprises, which have invested in Mainland China, can also be defined as special Multinational Corporates¡]MNC¡^. The utmost aims of international capital flows include lowering costs and exploiting new marketplaces. The mature industries in developed economies have been losing their competitive advantages in cost and marketing, while the developing economies are usually able to provide those MNCs with more potential markets and lower operation costs. Therefore, the enterprises in developed economies can alternatively keep their competitive edges by making use of cross-border operations and capital flows. Under the frameworks of International Product Life Cycle (IPLC) and the Diamond Model, the study aims to interpret the motivations of the capital flows and the investment location determinations among Taiwan and the economic regions in Mainland China. Want-Want group, denoted as a successful Taiwan firm in Mainland China, enjoys prosperous experiences in that market. The group categorized as food industry, which falls in the mature period of product life cycle in Taiwan. Hence, the study takes it as an example to illustrate the application of the IPLC theory in the Mainland China, and to interpret the investment local determinants by the conditions illustrated by the Diamond Model. The study has scrupulously examinated the history of Want-Want group investing at Taiwan and various economic regions in China. The findings are that when multinational corporations make foreign direct investments, the Product Life Cycle theory and Diamond Model theory can appropriately interpret the motivation and location selection respectively.

Prior research finds that mutual fund investors have adequate ability to select funds which superior performance remains persistent. Following the work of Keswani and Stolin (2008), we use a fund netflow as a proxy for investors¡¦ preference to examine whether the smart money effect exists. Furthermore, this paper differs from prior research by combining the smart money phenomenon and fund firm¡¦s marketing activities (the advertising expenditure of mutual funds). This paper generates four empirical findings. (1) Mutual funds with positive netflow subsequently have positive Carhart four-factor alpha, that is, the ¡§smart money effect¡¨ exists in Taiwanese mutual fund market. (2) The smart money effect is caused by investors¡¦ buying decisions. (3) The smart money effect is only a short-lived phenomenon. (4) Our evidence shows that advertising of funds can explain the smart money effect in Taiwanese open-end mutual fund market.

The focus of the dissertation is to be a flâneur in Shanghai and explore the relationship between ¡§urban space¡¨ and ¡§flowing body¡¨. In this paper, I attempt to describe the connection between daily practices and identities by interviewing Taiwanese entrepreneurs. As result, some major findings emerged from the study¡GFirstly, Taiwanese enterprenuers enjoy the flexible status based on the accumulation of their (original)capitals. Second, Shanghai is presented in both nostalgia and modernization. Due to the Satisfication of their daily life in shanghai, Taiwanese entrepreneurs like to join this global city.Third, Taiwan is less competitive for Taiwanese entrepreneurs in shanghai.

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Tutoring is a rapidly increasing but under-researched component of the education of immigrant students. This study examines one-on-one tutoring of Taiwanese high school immigrant students in Vancouver. Viewing tutoring as a social practice rather than an instructional tool for teaching academic content, this exploratory study attempts to understand how participants construct tutoring in the British Columbian educational context. Factors such as the patterning of tutorials, the participants' perspectives, and the wider educational context have been considered in this study. This study recruited 12 tutor-tutee pairs, 12 parents, and 10 school teachers. Tutoring interactions were tape-recorded over a ten-month period. Combining aspects of discourse analysis and qualitative research, this study used discourse analysis to study tutoring interactions and qualitative interviews to explore the participants' beliefs about tutoring and schooling. This study explored the interaction patterns of tutoring, examined the participants' assumptions and expectations, and investigated the relationship between the tutoring (informal learning) and the schooling (formal learning) process of immigrant students. The varied patterns of tutorials suggested that tutoring went beyond teaching academic content and served multiple functions for the immigrant families. The patterns focused on addressing the needs of parents and students to interact with their schools, and providing emotional and cultural support. In addition, there seemed to be conflicting voices among the participants regarding the tutorial practices. For example, participants expressed strong and opposing views about the goals of tutoring and the quantity of homework, academic content instruction and grammar instruction in tutoring and in schools. These different voices seemed to cause tensions which were explored and negotiated in tutoring interactions. Lastly, the relation between tutoring and its wider educational context was both cooperative and conflictual. For example, while tutoring offered students homework assistance, this assistance caused the school teachers to be concerned with tutor over-helping. Thus, there is a complex and interactive relationship between tutoring and the educational system. To conclude, studying tutoring as a social practice acknowledges the varied tutorial patterns, the conflicts, the dynamics, and the complexity of tutoring interactions.