兩岸在2001年底加入世界貿易組織（WTO），使得兩岸壽險市場受到經濟自由化及國際化的衝擊。因此，要如何提高自身的經營績效及競爭能力，便成為兩岸壽險公司最重要的目標。本研究以資料包絡分析法為基礎，並結合共同邊界（metafrontier）分析法，針對兩岸地區在2004年至2007年共59家壽險公司，進行經營效率與Malmquist生產力指數的實證研究。在生產力變動來源的拆解上，本文延伸Pastor and Lovell（2005）的固定規模報酬模型，利用變動規模報酬的生產邊界來衡量各公司的技術變動及技術差距比率變動，使生產力變動的來源上獲得更明確的意涵。最後本文利用Tobit迴歸模型，探討影響兩岸壽險公司經營效率的因素。 / After joining the WTO in December 2001, there is the advent of economic liberalization and internationalization on the life insurance market of Taiwan and Mainland China. Therefore, how to improve the operating performance and the industrial competitiveness in the present economic circumstance is the critical and important goal of the life insurance industry in Taiwan and Mainland China. This study applies data envelopment analysis with metafrontier model to measure the managerial efficiency and Malmquist productivity index of 59 firms of life insurance industry in Taiwan and Mainland China from 2004 to 2007. On decomposing the sources of productivity change, we extend Pastor and Lovell’ s CRS model (2005) to a VRS frontier benchmark to measure technical change and technical gap ratio change, which apparently provides us a more meaningful decomposition of productivity change. Finally, this study uses Tobit regression model to examine the factors which influence the managerial efficiency of the life insurance industry in Taiwan and Mainland China.

目前對於女性董事與財務績效的研究，以國外的文獻居多，台灣的研究僅有3篇，皆是以複迴歸的方式來進行研究分析，僅有一篇是針對金融業進行研究。未來全球經濟的發展，將隨著女性職場上參與程度和社經能力的提升而有所改變。而銀行業對經濟發展有密不可分的關係，故本研究以臺灣21間上市銀行2006年至2011年間的追蹤資料（即126筆樣本觀察值）來進行實證研究。採資料包絡分析法評估績效後，再以Tobit迴歸模型探討女性董監事的比例對台灣上市銀行經營績效的影響，並加入可能影響銀行經營績效的因素作為解釋變數，包括：資本適足率、逾放比率、銀行規模、政府持股比率、銀行是否加入金控、以及時間變數等因素。實證結果發現，女性董事的比例對於銀行的經營績效在統計上有負向的影響，而女性監察人的比例則沒有顯著的影響。建議末來可繼續研究女性董監事與其它產業的績效關係，以增加女性董監事與台灣產業間之關聯性的研究。 / At present, the studies of female directors and financial performances are mostly in foreign documents, and there are only three studies from Taiwan which are based on multiple regression analysis approach of research; only one of those studies focus on financial industry. The global economic development in the future will be changed along with the level of female participation in the workplace and the enhancement of their socio-economic capabilities. Moreover, banking has a close and tight relationship with economic developments. Therefore, this study was based on the traceable data of 21 listed banks in Taiwan from 2006 to 2011 (i.e., 126 sample observations) to proceed the empirical research. After adopting data envelopment analysis to evaluate the performances, it used tobit censored regression model to discuss the influence of the operational performance of listed banks in Taiwan along with the proportion of female directors and supervisors. It also added the possible factors that may affect the banks’ performance as explanatory variables including Capital Adequacy ratio, Non-Performing Loans ratio, size of banks, Public Shareholding ratio, joining in financial holding, time variables and other factors. The result of the study showed that statistically there is a negative effect to the operational performance of the banks along with the proportion of female directors; however, there is no significant impact affected by the proportion of female supervisors. In the future it suggested that the study can be continued researching about the influence of the operational performances in other industries by the proportion of female directors and supervisors in order to increase the research of the correlation between female directors/supervisors and industry performance in Taiwan.

產業發展不僅帶來經濟效益，亦會對環境造成衝擊，是以「永續發展」成為現代產業界的發展方向，而生態產業園區即為實踐永續發展的有效途徑。在永續發展的潮流之下，世界企業永續發展委員會提出一種用來衡量經濟價值及環境影響之間關係的工具--「生態效率」，從此如何評估生態產業園區的生態效率成為近年研究的重點之一。而隨著台灣推行生態產業園區之相關政策已逾十年，產業園區之永續性亦備受關注。 然根據文獻回顧，生態效率應結合其他工具使其更有效地衡量永續性。故本研究分為兩個階段，在第一階段中，本研究建立一個以資源消耗與環境衝擊為投入項，經濟發展為產出項的DEA模型來評估台灣60個產業園區之生態效率。第二階段則為探討產業園區與城鄉環境之關聯提出五個假說，更進一步萃取出重要代表因素與園區生態效率值進行Tobit迴歸分析。 研究結果顯示，僅有15個產業園區相對具有生態效率，大部分的產業園區需要降低用電量投入來提升生態效率。本研究另提供投入項目的調整建議，以供政府未來決策之參考。此外，在第二階段分析中，發現高度城鄉支援的產業園區具有較高的生態效率，是以產業園區及地方政府應共同致力於城鄉環境的永續發展。最後，Tobit迴歸分析結果表示我國產業園區可透過創新計畫、外資引入及能資源整合來提升生態效率。 / The industrial development not only brings economic benefits, but also consumes a lot of resources and produce environmental impacts. It is the reason that the concept of “Sustainable development” has become the main idea that the industry try to observe. And the development of eco-industrial parks(EIPs) is the effective way to achieve the sustainable development. Under the mainstream, the World Business Councils on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) proposed “Eco-efficiency” which is a tool for quantifying the relationship between economic value creation and environmental impacts. Therefore, how to evaluate the Eco-efficiency of EIPs has become one of the most important topic in the research recently. In Taiwan, the policy of the eco-industrial park has implemented for more than 10 years. Likewise, the sustainability of industrial parks is worthy of our concern. However, according to the literature review, it must be coupled with other tools to make eco-efficiency become a useful tool for sustainable development. Therefore, this research divided into two stages. At the first stage, this research constructs the DEA model of output for economical benefit and input for combining resource and environment to evaluate 60 industrial park’s eco-efficiency in Taiwan. At the second stage, in order to realize the relation between the eco-efficiency of industrial park and the environment of town and country, this research raises five hypotheses. Furthermore, this research extracts important representative factors through the Principal Component Analysis(PCA), and the eco-efficiency value of industrial parks for Tobit regression analysis. According to the research results, only 15 industrial parks are efficiency. Most of parks have to reduce electricity in order to improve the eco-efficiency. And this research also provides quantitative suggestions on input items, which could be the information for decision-making in the future. Otherwise, at the second stage, it has been discovered the industrial parks under the high support of town-and-country have better eco-efficiency. Thus, environmental sustainability must be the common goal of industrial parks and local governments. Finally, according to the results from Tobit regression analysis, the result showed that it is possible to improve eco-efficiency by innovative program, foreign capital and energy resource integration.

自2008年以來，兩岸實質交流與政府政策的開放下，金融產業在多年的紅海競爭下，出現新契機。尤以2010年兩岸經濟合作架構協議（ECFA）的簽署，將金融服務業列為早收清單，使臺灣銀行業者能縮短等待期提早進入中國大陸市場開展業務。 本文以臺灣31家本國銀行（不含專業銀行及外資銀行）為研究對象，自2007至2013年為研究期間，以中介法選擇「利息支出」、「營業費用」、「存款」等3項投入變數；「利息收入」、「非利息收入」、「放款及貼現」、「投資」等4項產出變數。運用資料包絡分析法（DEA）及Tobit迴歸模型，由全體銀行、金控子銀行與非金控銀行的角度，探討兩岸簽訂ECFA對其經營績效的影響。 實證結果發現：1.銀行經營績效深受外在金融環境及規模大小影響。2.全體樣本銀行於簽訂ECFA後之平均效率不如簽訂ECFA前，惟部分銀行效率值提高。3.簽訂ECFA前非金控銀行純技術效率優於金控子銀行；簽訂ECFA後金控子銀行整體效率、純技術效率及規模效率皆優於非金控銀行。4.簽訂ECFA前後公股銀行之整體效率、純技術效率及規模效率皆優於民營銀行。 / The financial industries led to a red ocean market due to high and intensive competition many years ago. However, the relaxation of government policy of substantial cross-strait economic interactions has brought the turning point since 2008. Especially, the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) between Taiwan and China was signed in 2010 and the financial service industry is covered under the Early Harvest list which can make Taiwanese bank sectors shorten the time and enter the Mainland China market early. This study is to research 31 domestic banks (exclude professional bank and foreign banks) and choose interest expense, operation expense and deposit as the three input variables and interest revenue, non-interest revenue, loan and discount and investment as output variables from 2007 to 2013. With the use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Tobit regression mode, it explores the effect of operating performance for the banks, the financial holding banks and the Independent Banks under the ECFA. Finding: After the signing of the ECFA，the sample banks' efficiency is not as good as before the signing, but some banks to improve the efficiency. Before the signing ECFA, the pure technical efficiency of non-bank financial holding is superior than financial holding banks ; however, efficiency of financial holding banks ,including technical efficiency pure technical efficiency scale efficiency,is superior than non-financial holding banks. Overall, the performance of public financial holding banks is superior than the private banks. However, the performance of banks is impact by financial environment and the size.

[pt] O setor de saneamento desempenha um papel fundamental à vida humana. A gestão eficiente dos recursos hídricos é de grande relevância à sociedade devido à sua importância econômica e produtiva para o desenvolvimento de outros bens e serviços. O presente estudo apresenta uma análise de benchmarking com o objetivo de avaliar a eficiência dos custos operacionais das empresas de saneamento do Brasil. Este abordou 3 metodologias de benchmarking, sendo elas a Análise Envoltória de Dados (DEA), Mínimos Quadrados Ordinários Corrigidos (MQOC) e Análise de Indicadores de Desempenho. Inicialmente foi estimada uma eficiência média a partir do DEA e MQOC, em seguida foi realizado o ajuste desta eficiência através de variáveis não gerenciáveis pelas empresas, por meio da regressão TOBIT. Por fim, foi feita uma análise complementar através de 15 indicadores de desempenho que abarcavam características de custos médios, produtividade e perdas de água no setor de saneamento. Os dados utilizados para este estudo foram disponibilizados pelo Sistema Nacional de Informações sobre Saneamento (SNIS). Para a estimação da eficiência foi considerado como variável de insumo o custo operacional das empresas (OPEX) Para produto, as variáveis de quantidade de ligações ativas e volume faturado de água e esgoto. Observou-se que o impacto das variáveis não gerenciáveis beneficiou o desempenho das empresas, mas não gerou mudanças significativas quanto à posição no ranking de eficiência. O resultado da eficiência média estimada pelas metodologias DEA e MQOC indicou a SANEPAR como benchmark relativamente aos seus custos operacionais, bem como a análise de indicadores de desempenho, para o ano de 2012. / [en] The sanitation sector plays a key role in human life. Efficient management of water resources is completely revelant to society because of their economic and productive importance for the development of other goods and services. This study presents a benchmarking analysis in order to evaluate the efficiency of the operating costs of sanitation companies in Brazil. Three benchmarking methodologies were used, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), Corrected Ordinary Least Square (COLS) and Performance Indicators Analysis. Initially an average efficiency was estimated from the DEA and COLS. Later, through TOBIT regression, an adjustment of this efficiency was made through this uncontrollable variables by companies. Finally, an additional analysis was performed using 15 performance indicators that spanned average cost characteristics, productivity and water losses in the sanitation sector. The data used for this study were provided by the Brazilian Sanitation Information System (SNIS). To estimate the efficiency was considered as an input variable operating costs of companies (OPEX).Regards to product, the amount of variable active links and volume of billed water and sewage were considered. It was observed the impact of uncontrollable variables benefited performance of the companies, but did not cause significant changes on the position in the ranking of efficiency. The result of the average efficiency estimated by the DEA and COLS methodologies indicated SANEPAR as a benchmark due to its operating costs, as well as the performance indicator analysis for the year 2012.

Climate change implication and rural livelihood capitals remain the major inextricable dimensions of sustainability in this twenty first century globally. As a result, the impact and outcome of climate change on rural livelihood capitals, including economic development cannot be overemphasized in Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality of the North West Province of South Africa, where the study took place. It is one of the largest maize production regions in South Africa, where a preponderance of the people in the province obtain their livelihood from agriculture which contributes enormously to the promotion of household’s food security. The study, therefore, investigated the adaptation strategies, awareness of climate change, factors that influenced climate change adaptation in North West Province of South Africa, with the aim of ascertaining the effects of climate change on livelihood capitals among small and emerging maize farmers. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select three hundred and forty-six (346) farmers who were interviewed from the study area, while a pre-tested questionnaire was administered to the maize farmers, aiming at matters related to climate change impact on livelihood and adaptation. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics while inferential statistical tools employed were Principal Component Analysis, Two-Stage Least Square regression model, Binary Logistic regression model, and Tobit regression model. The results of the study showed that climate change was linked to rural livelihood capitals as climate change awareness, low profit and co-operative finance were statistically significant (p<0.05). The study also established that majority of the rural farmers in the study area were aware of climate change, in which farm size, education, ownership of the farm, information received on climate change, source of climate change information, climate change information through extension services, channel of information received on climate change and support received on climate change were statistically significant (p<0.05). Factors such as farm size, household gender, type of farms, who owns the farm, land acquisition, source of climate change information, support received on climate change, and adaptation barrier were statistically significant (p<0.05) and influenced climate change adaptation in the study area. Conclusively, climate change is entwined with rural livelihood, and the variables that are significant to the study were identified. It was therefore recommended that government intervention, access to information, extension service and support, farmers’ networking, adoption of drought and heat stress tolerant seeds, indigenous knowledge should be improved, practiced and promoted among the rural farmers and the stakeholders involved in the study area. / Agriculture, Animal Health and Human Ecology / D. Phil. (Agriculture)