Since the late 1990s the government of Malaysia has increased emphasis on its Intensification of Research in Priority Areas (IRPA) program, focusing scientific research in universities and government research institutes (GRIs) on activities most likely to enhance national economic performance. The IRPA’s main purpose is to fund commercially viable research for the benefit of business. However, its 2001 mid-term review showed its rates and volumes of commercialization and technology transfer (CTT) to be inadequate. This study aimed to explain the perceived low rate of adoption and commercialization of scientific knowledge in manufacturing in Malaysia by exploring the actions of companies, universities and GRIs. Two main models of technical change, the Technik and the STH ones, were used. Fieldwork was carried out in Malaysia. Purposive sampling led to selection of 60 interviewees: 23 managers and professionals from companies, 17 scientists, eight Technology Transfer Office officers, six senior research administrators, three venture capitalists, two journalists and a politician. The interviews were open-ended. It was seen that research findings were not always relevant to company interests, and companies often preferred their own or adopted, sometimes reverse-engineered, technology. Government CTT funds did not help much in with design, prototypes and pilot plants. Inadequate communication and lack of trust influenced the low uptake of research findings. The commercial relevance of much scientific research was questioned. More government support for company risk-taking appeared to be needed. Differences in attitude and poor understanding of policies and principles tended to contribute to low uptake. Managers, professional, scientists, Technology Transfer Officers, senior research administrators, venture capitalists needed more flexibility, knowledge and skills to respond to profit-driven research findings. A specifically Malaysian approach to CTT was advocated.

從一九九0年代開始，由於微電子、電腦、衛星通信、網際網路、光學纖維等資訊科技的發展，不僅造成社會生活的變遷，也帶動了國家競爭的新形勢。 在這樣的時代環境下，資訊知識發展與科技運用成為經濟發展成功的關鍵，唯有促使科技出現重大突破，才能提昇產業的競爭力。 在學術界，討論資訊科技的文獻上出現了生產力矛盾(productivity paradox)的說法，即他們發現使用資訊科技對於生產力的提升出現了不顯著甚至是負的結果。針對此，後續有許多學者提出各種解釋生產力矛盾的原因，諸如過度投資(overinvestment)、衡量錯誤 (mismeasurement)等問題。 因此，本研究以生產力指標中的總要素生產力為衡量對象，檢視資訊科技對台灣製造業是否具有矛盾的情形，並觀察當技術革新時，對人力資本的需求變化，資料期間為1995-2002年，採用的計量模型為揉合資料（pooling data）模式。 根據實證結果，自動化設備的應用出現生產力矛盾(productivity paradox)的情形，而人力資本對總要素生產力的貢獻則為顯著的正值，若觀察投入自動化生產設備對人力資本的需求，則發現有資本與技術互補（capital-skilled complementarity）的情形。因此推論：單獨增加自動化設備並無法提升總要素生產力，唯有透過自動化設備投資與人力資本的配合，兩者互補之下，以提升台灣製造業生產力。

La presente tesis contiene tres ensayos sobre la Economía de las Organizaciones y el Desarrollo Económico. Cada capítulo se centra en un tópico distinto, cuya relevancia ha sido destacada por la literatura sobre Desarrollo Económico en la últimas dos décadas.La motivación del primer ensayo reside en el hecho de que el inapropiado funcionamiento de las instituciones políticas y económicas constituye un obstáculo severo para el progreso económico. El ensayo analiza el rol de la concentración de la propiedad de las empresas de media para restringir la corrupción burocrática. El segundo ensayo está inspirado por la literatura sobre los determinantes del progreso tecnológico. El capítulo estudia el impacto de la competencia y la liberalización de la entrada en los mercados sobre la dirección del progreso tecnológico. El ensayo se centra en la comparación de las ventajas y desventajas de orientar el cambio tecnológico hacia la creación de bienes de mayor o menor calidad. El último capítulo explora cómo las diferencias tecnológicas entre empresas que se fusionan afectan la eficiencia productiva de la nueva organización. / This thesis contains three essays on the Economics of Organisations and Development. Each essay focuses on a different topic that has received special attention by the Development literature over the last two decades. The first chapter is motivated by the fact that malfunctioning institutions constitute a severe obstacle for economic progress. It centers the analysis on the role of the media to constrain bureaucratic corruption. The second chapter is inspired by the large and influential literature on the determinants of the technical progress. The chapter focuses on the role of market competition and entry liberalization to affect the direction of the technical change. It analyzes the trade-off between doing quality up-grading or creating new but low-quality goods. The third chapter explores the role of conflicting organisational technologies to affect the economic performance of merging firms.

This thesis investigates several macroeconomic aspects of labor markets. First chapter finds that in the US more educated individuals experience lower and less volatile unemployment due to a lower hazard rate of losing a job. A theoretical model with initial on-the-job training illustrates that accumulation of match-specific human capital can explain this empirical pattern. Second chapter develops a theoretical model with state-dependent wage setting. The model predicts that higher wage bargaining costs lead to higher and more volatile unemployment, consistent with some cross-country empirical evidence. Third chapter proposes a method to indirectly measure job-embodied technical change by using data on job tenure. The results show that job-embodied technical change has increased substantially since the midnineties. / Aquesta tesi investiga diversos aspectes dels mercats de treball. El primer capítol troba que, als Estats Units, els individus amb un nivell d'educació més elevat experimenten un nivell de desocupació més baix i menys volàtil, degut a una menor probabilitat de perdre el lloc de treball. Un model teòric que incorpora formació inicial al lloc de treball il·lustra que l'acumulació de capital humà específic pot explicar aquesta regularitat empírica. El segon capítol desenvolupa un model teòric amb un mecanisme de fixació de salaris que depèn de l'estat de l'economia. El model prediu que uns costos de negociació salarial més elevats comporten un nivell de desocupació més elevat i més volàtil, de forma consistent amb l'evidència empírica entre països. El tercer capítol proposa un mètode per mesurar, de forma indirecta, el canvi tecnològic incorporat als llocs de treball, mitjançant l'ús de dades sobre l'antiguitat al lloc de treball. Els resultats mostren que el canvi tecnològic incorporat als llocs de treball ha augmentat considerablement des de mitjans dels anys noranta.

No description available.

Esta tesis doctoral es una colección de tres artículos. Los capítulos 1 y 2, co-autorados con Joachim Voth, investigan por qué Europa en 1700 ya era más rico que el resto del mundo y por qué Inglaterra fue el primer país en industrializarse. Encontramos que las dinámicas de la población, en lugar del crecimiento de la productividad, fueron los promotores más importantes del desarrollo económico de Europa Occidental durante la temprana edad moderna (1450-1700). Calibramos un modelo probabilístico para representar Inglaterra en 1700 y encontramos que ingresos iniciales más altos unidos a limitaciones de fertilidad aumentaron la probabilidad de industrialización. En el tercer capítulo, presento un nuevo hecho estilizado y analizo su contribución al sesgo del cambio tecnológico hacia los trabajadores más cualificados: El porcentaje de trabajadores cualificados en la producción intermedia está altamente correlacionado con la proporción de trabajo cualificado en la producción final. Esto genera un efecto multiplicador que refuerza la demanda de trabajo cualificado a lo largo de la cadena de producción. El efecto es importante, explica más de un tercio del aumento de la demanda de trabajadores cualificados en la industria manufacturera de EE.UU. / This dissertation is a collection of three essays. Chapters 1 and 2, co-authored with Joachim Voth, investigate the question why Europe in 1700 was ahead of the rest of the world and why England was the first country to industrialize. We find that population dynamics, rather than productivity growth, were the most important drivers for Western Europe to overtake China in the early modern period (1450-1700). We calibrate a probabilistic model to match England in 1700 and find that higher initial per capita incomes together with fertility limitation increased its industrialization probabilities. In the third chapter, I present a novel stylized fact and analyze its contribution to the skill bias of technical change: The share of skilled labor embedded in intermediate inputs correlates strongly with the skill share employed in final production. This delivers a multiplier that reinforces skill demand along the production chain. The effect is large, accounting for more than one third of the observed skill upgrading in U.S. manufacturing.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-10T18:33:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Eduardo de Pintor.pdf: 2268244 bytes, checksum: a1d995cf5f0c97287de35b0b1349eecc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-01-27 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The agricultural sector has been and remains essential to the development of the Brazilian economy. This sector held its basic functions to assist the development process in much of the country. The main functions, carried out in the 1960s and 1970s, were: sustained increase in supply of agricultural products; expansion of agribusiness exports; labor release to work in other sectors of the economy; transfer of financial resources to other activities in the economy and consumer market constitution for industrialized goods and services. However, it is known that development occurs unevenly and disproportionately in the territory, tending to be concentrated spatially at the locations of greater wealth accumulation. Thus, the agricultural sector also has modernized more intensively in places with higher wealth concentration. Its modernization has not occurred equally throughout the national territory, having also areas where agricultural expansion occurred in the 1990s and 2000. Brazil is one of the few countries that has the possibility of expanding the agricultural frontier of production through incorporation of new areas. The process of agricultural expansion in these areas continues to occur, either by area growth or by increase in productivity. They are concentrated in the states of the regions North and Northeast of Brazil. The agent capable of accomplish this agricultural expansion through new investments is the entrepreneur. In Schumpeter's view, it is the agent who performs the new combinations of production factors that result in innovations in the economy. To this end, this agent, when unprovided of the means of production, needs credit. The role of credit is to provide the means for the entrepreneur perform new combinations. This capacity that the entrepreneur is gifted will result in the opening of new markets or a new source of raw material. The farmer figure as this agent able to implement the technical change of the production process in the analyzed region. Thus, based on these assumptions and the way that the development is spread in the territory, it analyzed the expansion of the production frontier of rice, corn and soybeans in the North and Northeast of Brazil, from 1999 to 2012. For this, it used an econometric model estimated by panel data technique. The equation estimated by this method found that 81.95% of the harvested area of rice, corn and soybeans to the North and Northeast Brazil from 2000 to 2012, are explained by the rural credit funding, Gross Value Added of agriculture, commodities price, number of employees in the agricultural sector, number of establishments of the agricultural sector, quantity sold tractors, agribusiness exports and dummies Bahia, Maranhão, Pará, Piauí and Tocantins. Besides, the learning ability and technique of farmers was critical to the consolidation of the agricultural expansion process, they are seen as entrepreneurs able to put into practice the technical changes applied to the agricultural sector in the North and Northeast of Brazil. / O setor agrícola foi e continua sendo indispensável para o desenvolvimento da economia brasileira. Esse setor realizou suas funções básicas para auxiliar o processo de desenvolvimento em grande parte do território nacional. As principais funções realizadas, nas décadas de 1960 e 1970, foram: aumento sustentado da oferta de produtos agrícolas; expansão das exportações do agronegócio; liberação de mão de obra para outros setores da economia; transferência de recursos financeiros para outras atividades na economia; e a constituição de mercado consumidor para os bens e serviços industrializados. Contudo, sabe-se que o desenvolvimento ocorre de forma desigual e desproporcional no território, tendendo a concentra-se espacialmente nos locais de maior acumulação de capital. Deste modo, o setor agrícola também se modernizou de forma mais intensiva em locais com maior concentração de capital. Sua modernização não ocorreu de forma igualitária em todo o território nacional, possuindo, ainda, áreas onde a expansão agrícola ocorreu nas décadas de 1990 e 2000. O Brasil é um dos poucos países que tem a possibilidade de expansão da fronteira agrícola de produção via incorporação de novas áreas. O processo de expansão agrícola nestas áreas continua ocorrendo, seja pelo crescimento de área ou pela elevação da produtividade. Elas estão concentradas nos estados das regiões Norte e Nordeste brasileiro. O agente capaz de realizar esta expansão agrícola por meio de novos investimentos é o empresário. Na concepção de Schumpeter, ele é o agente que realiza as novas combinações dos fatores de produção que resultam em inovações na economia. Para tanto, esse agente, quando desprovido dos meios de produção, necessita de crédito. O papel do crédito é proporcionar os meios para que o empresário realize novas combinações. Esta capacidade de que o empresário é dotado resultará na abertura de novos mercados ou em uma nova fonte de matéria-prima. O agricultor figura como este agente capaz de implantar a mudança técnica do processo produtivo na região analisada. Assim, pautado nestas premissas e na forma pela qual o desenvolvimento se propaga no território, analisou-se a expansão da fronteira de produção das culturas de arroz, milho e soja no Norte e Nordeste brasileiro, no período de 1999 à 2012. Para isto, foi utilizado um modelo econométrico estimado por meio da técnica de dados em painel. A equação estimada por esse método constatou que 81,95% da área colhida das culturas de arroz, milho e soja para o Norte e Nordeste brasileiro de 2000 a 2012, são explicadas pelo crédito rural de custeio, Valor Adicionado Bruto da produção agropecuária, preço das commodities, número de empregados no setor agrícola, número de estabelecimentos do setor agrícola, quantidade vendida de tratores, exportações do agronegócio e as dummies Bahia, Maranhão, Pará, Piauí e Tocantins. Além disso, a capacidade de aprendizagem e técnica dos agricultores foi fundamental para a consolidação do processo de expansão agrícola, sendo eles, vistos como os empresários capazes de colocar em prática as mudanças técnicas aplicadas ao setor agrícola no Norte e Nordeste brasileiro.

Over the past decade, technologies that facilitate household electricity production and storage have seen a rapid development along with a significant cost reduction. Research points to an increased share of household-produced electricity within the existing national grids across the globe. In some cases, self-sufficiency is possible where households are able to decouple from the grid and become independent on their electricity, in other words, go off-grid. Furthermore, this change puts additional pressure on how the electricity system is set up, which, challenges prevailing incumbents to adapt. Depending on the geographical location, circumstances for selfsufficiency varies. Sweden is a country with high seasonal variations with its Northern position, which raises the question of how off-grid households are feasible and, how they can receive traction. To investigate possible changes within large technical systems such as the electricity system, which is a vital part of the society, theories within socio-technical systems have shown much promise. However, these theories often lack the more techno-economic aspect of concrete and future investment costs from a consumer perspective, suggesting an existing research gap. Hence, the purpose of this study is to provide further knowledge regarding off-grid applications in the Swedish Context. This is done by investigating what circumstances could trigger existing electricity consumers to go off-grid. The research process and structure of the report can be interpreted as indiscriminate, however, the study has focused on combining theories surrounding socio-technical changes whilst applying techno-economic modelling to strengthen the work, similar to a dual paper study. Data was collected in the form of a literature review and interviews to provide a holistic representation of off-grid and its nexus to the electricity system. In addition to this, complementing modelling of grid-connected-, prosumer-, and off-grid households were performed. Results point towards a scene where off-grid reaches grid parity within the coming two decades, which, will increase the economic rationale of investing in an off-grid. Opposingly, there is currently no economic rationale in off-grid applications considering the relatively low electricity costs in Sweden as of today. Moreover, conditions show promise if the adopters see beyond economics and, possesses a strong will towards independence. However, implications suggest that the high reliability and low costs of the Swedish electricity grid impedes the ability of new radical innovations to receive traction. Furthermore, this study has contributed by filling the research gap between socio-technical changes and techno-economic projects in regards to electricity systems. Consequently, contributing to the academic field of socio-technical change, it has been shown that the combination of socio-technical change and techno-economic projections is applicable and beneficial. Additionally, it can be argued that the results of this study highlight that the consumer have a greater role in the development of off-grid applications than what the theories suggest. Lastly, the electricity system is a complex mechanism and, to further strengthen the perception of how a relatively new application, as in the case of off-grid, will impact the system, appurtenant suggestions for possible future research within the area are proposed. / Under det senaste decenniet har teknik som underlättar hushållens elproduktion och lagring haft en hastig utveckling tillsammans med en betydande kostnadsminskning. Forskning pekar på en ökad andel hushållsproducerad el inom de befintliga nationella elnäten över hela världen. I vissa fall är självförsörjning möjligt där hushållen kan koppla bort sig från nätet och bli oberoende av sin elförsörjning, med andra ord gå off-grid. Vidare leder en potentiell förändring mot offgrid till ytterligare påtryckningar på hur elsystemet är uppbyggt, vilket utmanar många aktörers sätt att agera. Beroende på geografisk plats så varierar förutsättningarna för självförsörjning. Sverige är ett land med stora säsongsvariationer i och med sin nordliga position, vilket väcker frågan om off-grid hushåll är genomförbara i Sverige och hur de kan skulle kunna etableras. För att undersöka möjliga förändringar inom stora tekniska system som elsystemet, som är en viktig del av samhället, har teorier inom socio-tekniska system visat vara till stor nytta. Däremot saknar dessa teorier emellertid den mer tekno-ekonomiska aspekten av konkreta och framtida investeringskostnader ur ett konsumentperspektiv, vilket antyder ett befintligt forskningsgap. Följaktligen är syftet med den här studien att ge ytterligare inblick om off-grid-applikationer i svenska sammanhang. Vilket har gjorts genom att undersöka vilka omständigheter som kan leda till att befintliga elkonsumenter går off-grid. Forskningsprocessen och strukturen i rapporten kan vara svårtolkat, men studien har fokuserat på att kombinera teorier kring socio-tekniska förändringar samtidigt som man använder teknoekonomisk modellering för att stärka arbetet. Data samlades in i form av en litteraturstudie och intervjuer för att ge en holistisk representation av off-grid och dess koppling till elsystemet. Utöver litteraturstudie utfördes kompletterande modellering av hushållsanslutna, prosumeroch off-gridhushåll. Resultaten pekar mot scenarion där off-grid når nätparitet under de kommande två decennierna, vilket kommer att öka den ekonomiska rationaliteten för att investera i ett off-grid. Det finns det för närvarande inga ekonomiska skäl till att investera off-grid-applikationer med tanke på de relativt låga elkostnaderna i Sverige idag. Förhållandena visar dessutom löfte om att potentiella användare ser förbi ekonomin och har istället en stark vilja mot självständighet. Implikationer tyder emellertid på att det svenska elnätets höga tillförlitlighet och låga pris hindrar nya radikala innovationers förmåga att ta få fäste. Det är argumenterbart att den här studien har bidragit med att fylla forskningsgapet mellan socio-tekniska förändringar och tekno-ekonomiska projektioner inom elsystem. Samtidigt har studien bidragit till det vetenskapliga området kring socio-tekniska visat på möjligheten och fördelen i att kombinera teorier kring socio-teknisk förändring och tekno-ekonomiska förändringar. Dessutom kan det hävdas att resultaten av den här studie visar att konsumenten har en större roll i utvecklingen av applikationer utanför nätet än vad teorierna föreslår. Slutligen är elsystemet en komplex mekanism, och för att ytterligare stärka uppfattningen om hur en relativt ny applikation, som i fallet utanför nätet, kommer att påverka systemet föreslås lämpliga förslag för eventuell framtida forskning inom området.

本論文對於醫療市場的生產績效研究，係由兩篇獨立的學術研究報告所組成，研究重點在於利用非參數資料包絡分析方法 ( nonparametric DEA approach )，估計醫院的生產技術，以衡量醫院的技術效率及不同年度間之生產力變動，進而分析不同醫院間，生產績效差異的主要原因。本論文所採用的研究方法與探討的主題，不同於國內既有的相關文獻。 第一部分：生產不確定性與醫院效率 本部分主要探討在醫院面對不確定性時的效率評估。一般而言，醫院有兩種生產上的不確定性來源：醫師或醫院的診療結果所導致的生產不確定性；及消費者對醫療服務需求的不確定性 (Arrow, 1963)。當醫院面對生產不確定性時，醫院效率將與廠商如何處理不確定性問題有關，亦即，當廠商事前規劃愈縝密，未來可能的產出失靈水準愈低，則其生產效率表現愈佳。本文利用民國 82 及 83 年（準）醫學中心與（準）區域醫院資料，模擬醫院在面對生產不確定性時，各種可能的產出失靈水準，以chance constrained DEA 模式 (Land, Lovell and Thore, 1993) 估算醫院的隨機技術效率，並與傳統、確定性的DEA模式所得到之結果，做一比較。 Chance constrained DEA模式與傳統DEA模式的不同，在於前者估計出的生產前緣，並不總是包絡所有的樣本點，亦即，允許某廠商之產出超越生產前緣或說允許產出失靈可能性之存在，而後者則否。實證結果發現，在chance constrained DEA模式下，私立醫院的技術效率高於公立醫院，且呈現統計顯著性的差異，但兩者間的差異隨著醫院事前準備程度的提高而縮小；而傳統DEA模式也顯示，私立醫院的技術效率確實顯著地高於公立醫院。此外，若產出失靈水準夠低，則chance constrained DEA模式的效率值與傳統DEA模式的效率值，兩者間的分配會呈現統計顯著性差異。 在面對生產不確定性時，欲提升公立醫院的生產效率，應提高廠商事先規劃的程度，才能與私立醫院之生產效率並駕齊驅。一般而言，廠商事先準備的程度高低，與醫院本身的特性有關，因此，欲改善公立醫院緩衝產能的準備程度，以降低產出失靈水準，有必要進行體制層面的改革，亦即，從進行人事變革、財務之授權與彈性化等方向開始做起，如此應可提高公立醫院的生產效率。 第二部分：全民健康保險制度與醫院生產力變動 全民健保實施後，民眾對醫療服務的可近性提高，醫院間的市場結構改變，因此，醫院生產力與效率的提升，成為眾所關切的焦點。為瞭解醫院在全民健保實施後，資源是否有效配置，本部分利用民國 82 至 86 年醫學中心、區域醫院與地區醫院等大小型醫院資料，以範疇DEA模式估計Malmquist生產力變動指標，並將之分解為技術變動、純技術效率變動、及規模效率變動等三項變動來源。 實證結果發現，從82至86年醫院整體平均效率而言，CRS（VRS）生產技術下的平均效率為 66.00%（74.87%），表示不論大小型醫院，平均而言，皆存在技術不效率的情形。再者，在民國84年，亦即全民健保實施的年度，其效率水準明顯較其他年度為低，其餘年度的效率水準都相對較高，此一結果意謂，政策干擾對於醫院效率表現的影響，是短期性的。另外，小型醫院皆較大型醫院不效率，兩者的效率差異呈現統計顯著性；以權屬別而言，不論是大型醫院或小型醫院中的私立醫院，其生產效率均優於公立醫院，且兩者的效率差異呈現統計顯著性。而透過迴歸分析顯示，全民健保實施、權屬別之虛擬變數、佔床率、平均住院日、及以醫院產出衡量的集中度指標等，是影響醫院生產效率的重要因素。 從Malmquist生產力變動（　et al., 1994）來看，平均而言，82-86年間醫院生產力成長率約在 -3.06 % 左右。就生產力變動來源而言，技術成長率（-2.74 %）與整體效率成長率（-0.33 %）均為負，而技術變動則是阻礙生產力成長的主要原因。此外，若以醫院整體效率變動來源來看，平均而言，整體效率退步是由於規模效率變動所致（-0.74%）。 此外，本文著重在　et al.(1994)、Ray and Desli (1997) 及Grifell and Lovell (1998) 三種定義下的Malmquist生產力變動指標之比較。研究結果發現，Grifell and Lovell (1998) 的一般化Malmquist生產力指數，並沒有正確衡量廠商的生產力變動及其變動來源項。而利用Kruskal-Wallis檢定結果發現，三個模式中的生產力變動差異，並不具統計顯著性，而變動來源項（技術變動與規模效率變動）亦顯示相同的結果。 / This dissertation is focused on the efficiency and productivity studies of hospitals in Taiwan. It includes two independent academic papers. The primary intention is to introduce the newly developed ideas in the measurement of efficiency and productivity, rather than to create new ones. The utilization of these ideas has not, however, been discussion in print. And some of the arguments we used and brought together are new regarding to the literature of hospital efficiency and productivity measurement. Utilizing the non-parametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) approaches, efficiency scores and productivity change indexes were estimated. Efforts were made to explain the difference of productivity performance among individual hospitals. Nevertheless, the methods we used and the economic approach behind them distinguish this study from other empirical studies of the medical market. Part I　 Market Uncertainty and Hospital Efficiency This part of the dissertation is focused on the measurement of efficiency of hospitals, incorporating uncertainty. There are stochastic variations in production relationships for hospitals. Generally speaking, the uncertainty of hospitals comes from two major sources: the natural uncertainty of medical cares; and the uncertainty of demands for medical cares (Arrow, 1963). Given the uncertainty in the medical market, the efficiency of hospitals hinges on how decision-makers deal with it. Undoubtedly, an optimal planning of the output buffers improves the efficiency performance. Using the hospital survey data in 1993 and 1994, and employing the chance constrained DEA model (Land, Lovell and Thore, 1993), the stochastic efficiency indexes of public and private medical centers and regional hospitals were estimated. Compared with deterministic frontier enveloping a given set of sample observations all the time, the chance-constrained frontier envelops them most of the time. That is, the chance constrained DEA allows the possibilities of output failure. Imposing different values of output failure probability, the estimation results were compared with the traditional (deterministic) DEA models. The empirical evidences of the chance constrained DEA model showed that, on average, private hospitals performed significantly better than public hospitals. This result matches with the result of the traditional DEA model. With Mann-Whitney U test, we compared the distributions of efficiency indexes under chance constrained DEA and deterministic DEA models. The test results showed that the difference between these two different models is statistically significant given a higher probability of output failure. These results imply that the nature of risk and the manipulation for risk are different for public and private hospitals. We also find that that the efficiency performance of public hospitals could be improved by the increasing of its reserve capacity. Part II　 National Health Insurance and Hospital Productivity Change In this part of the dissertation, we examine the impact of NHI on hospitals, and trace the sources of hospital productivity growth in Taiwan. To pursue our goal, we employ a data consisting of 157 medical centers, regional hospitals and district hospitals over the period 1993 to 1997, and resort to the Malmquist productivity index to measure total factor productivity change. The index could be decomposed into three components: technical change, pure technical efficiency change and scale efficiency change. The estimation technique used in the study is the deterministic non-parametric DEA approach. The results we find are revealing and suggestive to the public and the government in order to promote and assure the efficient delivery of quality health care. The average efficiency scores are 66.00% (74.87%) for CRS (VRS) technology and it means that there are substantial efficiency losses for the sample hospitals during the study period. The efficiency score of the hospitals as a whole in 1995 (the beginning year of NHI) was much lower than the other 4 years' efficiency scores. A censored Tobit regression analysis is used and identifies that NHI policy, ownership, rate of bed occupancy, average length of stay and the output-specific concentration level were all the significant determinants of technical efficiency. Empirical results indicate that most medical care regions became more output-specific concentrated. Total factor productivity on average deteriorated at an annual rate of -3.1%, and it was dominated by substantial technical regresses at an annual rate of -2.74%. The small hospitals were severely affected by NHI. Furthermore, within large and small hospital groups, the difference in technical change was statistically significant, but the differences in TFP and the associated components between ownership were not. Special attention was paid to compare　 et al.(1994), Ray and Desli (1997) and Grifell and Lovell (1998) approaches to decomposing the Malmquist productivity index. Empirical results indicate that the first 2 approaches yield accurate productivity changes, while GL doesn't. However, they produce almost the same magnitude of average TFP. In addition, no significant differences in the measured technical change and efficiency change were found among the three approaches.