This paper attempts to test the cross-country efficiency in the foreign exchange market for four countries in East Asia : Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and China,whose values of industrial output are the top four in Asia. This paper use time series methods to test whether the cointegration relations exist or not in U.S. dollar spot exchange market of the four countries . This paper use two econometric models : 2 X 1 VAR model to test mutual co-integration and 4 X 1 VAR model to test co-movements for the foreign exchange rates of the four countries. Additionally, the models includes ARCH effects for the error terms.The empirical results mostly show that there are no cointegration relationships between four countries' spot exchange rates . Based on above results as well as Granger's perspective to the market efficiency of speculative assets in 1986, this study concludes that the hypothesis of cross country efficiency holds for these four countries' foreign exchange market.

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Reactive power, denoted as volt-ampere reactive (VARs), is fundamental to ac power systems and is due to the complex impedance of the loads and transmission lines. It has several undesirable consequences which include increased transmission loss, reduction of power transfer capability, and the potential for the onset of system-wide voltage instability, if not properly compensated and controlled. Reactive power compensation is a technique used to manage and control reactive power in the ac network by supplying or consuming VARs from points near the loads or along the transmission lines. Load compensation is aimed at applying power factor correction techniques directly at the loads by locally supplying VARs. Typical loads such as motors and other inductive devices operate with lagging power factor and consume VARs; compensation techniques have traditionally employed capacitor banks to supply the required VARs. However, capacitors are known to have reliability problems with both catastrophic failure modes and wear-out mechanisms. Thus, they require constant monitoring and periodic replacement, which greatly increases the cost of traditional load compensation techniques. This thesis proposes a reactive power load compensator that uses inductors (chokes) instead of capacitors to supply reactive power to support the load. Chokes are regarded as robust and rugged elements; but, they operate with lagging power factor and thus consume VARs instead of generating VARs like capacitors. A matrix converter interfaces the chokes to the ac network. The matrix converter is controlled using the Venturini modulation method which can enable the converter to exhibit a current phase reversal property. So, although the inductors draw lagging currents from the output of the converter, the converter actually draws leading currents from the ac network. Thus, with the proposed compensation technique, lagging power factor loads can be compensated without using capacitor banks. The detailed operation of the matrix converter and the Venturini modulation method are examined in the thesis. The application of the converter to the proposed load compensation technique is analyzed. Simulations of the system in the MATLAB and PSIM environments are presented that support the analysis. A digital implementation of control signals for the converter is developed which demonstrates the practical feasibility of the proposed technique. The simulation and hardware results have shown the proposed compensator to be a promising and effective solution to the reliability issues of capacitor-based load-side VAR compensation techniques.

How do we evaluate an enterprise¡¦s reasonable value? What would be the effective method? In the following research, I try to evaluate an enterprise¡¦s real value by four models: FCF model, EBO model, PB model, and PE model. Which model would generate the most accurate result and interpret the volatility of the stock market better? In addition, how effective are they? According to my research, the volatility of the stock price can be interpreted by the PB model best. PB model¡¦s R2 can reach as high as 76%. As for the accuracy, PE model can generate the most accurate estimation, whose tendency ratio is 34%. PB model, EBO model and FCF model rank the second, third and forth, respectively. The portfolios invested in accordance with the FCF model, EBO model, PB model, and PE model earn positive returns of 24%, 12%, 15% and 6%, respectively. Over half of the invested targets have positive return. In this period, the Taiwanese Stock Weighted Index fell from 8638.75 to 6142.32, generating a -29% of return. That is, the 4 evaluation models recommended by my research do have different results from the market. The market does not reflect the true value of the enterprises. Finally, I try to combine the enterprise evaluation models with the measurement of risk. The result shows that the penetration does not occur in FCF model and the variance- covariance model, while that occurs three times, four times and two times in the EBO model, PB model and PE model, respectively. Comparing the measured risk among all these models with the real risk, I find an average error 30.44% in the variance-covariance model, 20.26% in the FCF model, 8.11% in the EBO model, 10.91% in the PB model and 8.55% in the PE model. The risks measured by the enterprise evaluation models, have lower error. However, the risk measured by the variance-covariance model generates a 30.44% of error. As a result, measuring risks by the enterprise evaluation models is workable for the public.

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¡@¡@Taiwan lacks of natural resources and highly industrialized at the same time. International trade activities are the most crucial way to obtain raw materials for production and channels to sell Taiwan¡¦s output to the rest of the world. Therefore, the fluctuation of real exchange rate influences exports and imports just as double blades sword, and subtly causes welfare issue. In this paper, we combine traditional productivity argument proposed by Balassa-Samuelson and recent literatures focusing on sticky price both to cause real exchange rate in the long-run using Taiwan as a case. Using structural VAR model to decompose unobservable shocks, change in productivity between domestic economy and the trading blocs is still the most influencing factor to explain the fluctuation of real exchange rate of Taiwan.

This study is based on the viewpoint of the intertemporal substitution of the consumption smoothing. Under considering the interactive influences on the international economy, the writer employs the present value model to investigate an estimated model of the current accounts. The basis of the traditional current account model is to apply the traditional single-country VAR estimation, and not to consider the internationally interactive effects among countries. However, with the more and more frequent interactions among nations, the economic development in different countries, for the aspect of economic theory, may have interactive influences on each other. Respecting this viewpoint that the current account theory of the traditionally intertemporal model are actually unable to effectively support the inference of the model, the writer therefore adds the cross-country VAR estimation method analyze the transnational influences. I hope that the model can effectively modify the estimation index for the conventional model. In addition, a good model not only should contain in-sample goodness of fit, but also could reveal the variables of the future by using the out-of-sample. Therefore, according to the method of predictive capability assessment proposed by Diebold and Mariano (1995), I attempt to compare the out-of-sample prediction between the single and the cross-country VAR. From the aspect of the goodness of fit, the finding of this study has proven that the model considered the cross-country VAR indeed has a relatively better goodness-of-fit result in Japan, if compared to the traditional single-country. However, in the U.S., the traditional single-country model does not immensely improve the goodness-of-fit result. The finding shows that either the traditional single-country VAR or cross-country VAR, it possesses the perfect goodness of fit. The reason, perhaps, is that America itself has already been the center of the politics and economy. Also, it seems those Americans representative households have as well as the worldview. Therefore, people in the States might have considered the economic conditions of other countries when they are engaged in consumption behaviors. If this is the case, there are no many opportunities for those people to adjust their behaviors when considering the foreign economic situations. On the other hand, from the viewpoint of the prediction capability, the final result conducted both in the U.S. and in Japan agreeably demonstrates that it is a better method of prediction using the cross-country VAR estimation than the traditional single-country one.

According to Michael Porter¡¦s Competitive Advantage, only through Value Chain Analysis, a company can realize it¡¦s cost behavior and the resources needed for differentiation. Thus the company can optimize its resources usage and increase it¡¦s business activities¡¦ performance. A value chain related research indicates that when a company improves its business value activities efficiency, the cost structure of the company is also affected and changed. Therefore, besides understanding a company¡¦s each value activities before it makes the decision of its business activities¡¦ optimized combination, it should realize and control its value-activity cost variation. Due to the fast development of information technology and the speedy changing business environment, many retailers endeavor in information technology investment and application, so as to face the variety competitive threats and increase its own competitive advantages. In this situation, many retailers¡¦ business value activities are varied, which are gradually computerized or digitalized, and those retailers¡¦ value-activity costs are also changed; some kinds of costs are probably raised; some maybe reduced. The target for this research is the retail industry in Taiwan. Because the retailers¡¦ business value activities are focused on customer, market and are marketing oriented, in this research, we name it marketing value activities. From the Activity-Based Costing perspective and by literature survey, the research collected and arranged those variables for two main research constructs - ¡§Marketing Value Activities¡¨ and ¡§Marketing Activity Cost¡¨, which are the base for the research questionnaire design. This research first investigates the computerization situation of Taiwanese retailer marketing value activities and the variation situation of the marketing costs by questionnaire survey. Next, it classifies the marketing value activities and marketing cost by the computerization and variation situation respectively, using Factor Analysis. By Canonical Correlation Analysis, the research proves that the computerization of marketing value activities indeed makes marketing cost change. Furthermore, this research probes into the detail impact relationships among all classified marketing value activities and marketing cost. Through Multiple Stepwise Regression¡¦s Path Analysis and assisted with the information system hierarchy, the research constructs the path diagram of the marketing activities and marketing costs, by which we explains the influence sequence of marketing value activities and marketing costs. So that we can understand which marketing costs would be increased or decreased when one marketing value activity¡¦s computerization level is increased. And finally, we anticipate that this research would provide the retailers a referral for controlling marketing cost variation while computerizing their marketing value activities.

An increasing emphasis on chemical process safety over the last two decades has led to the development and application of powerful risk assessment tools. Hazard analysis and risk evaluation techniques have developed to the point where quantitatively meaningful risks can be calculated for processes and plants. However, the results are typically presented in semi-quantitative “ranked list” or “categorical matrix” formats, which are certainly useful but not optimal for making business decisions. A relatively new technique for performing valuation under uncertainty, Value at Risk (VaR), has been developed in the financial world. VaR is a method of evaluating the probability of a gain or loss by a complex venture, by examining the stochastic behavior of its components. We believe that combining quantitative risk assessment techniques with VaR concepts will bridge the gap between engineers and scientists who determine process risk and business leaders and policy makers who evaluate, manage, or regulate risk. We present a few basic examples of the application of VaR to hazard analysis in the chemical process industry. We discover that by using the VaR tool we are able to present data that allows management to make better informed decisions.

Due to the characteristics of convertible bond, the issuing volumes are smaller than stocks and the investors are mostly institutional investors. Therefore, the turnover and the market liquidity of convertible bond are lower than those of stock market. The past literature indicate that the reaction of corporate bond to the fundamental information falls behind the stock, therefore, the price change of corporate bond always lag behind that of stock market. Moreover, the extra right of convertible bond compare to corporate bond is the convertible option in exchange for stocks, that also causes the relation between the stocks and the convertible is much closer than the normal corporate bond. The motivation of this study is to take advantage of the co-movement relation between these two markets to discover the profit opportunities of investment strategy. As a result, the purpose of this study is to investigate the prediction of the convertible bond and the reaction of the market information. Firstly, I try to verify momentum effect or overreaction effect in convertible bond is significant. Second, I apply the VAR model and Granger model to analyze the return relationship between convertible bonds and stocks, and to formulate our strategies by predicting the return of convertible bond from the lagged return of stocks. At the end, I analyze the performance of strategy in order to discover the best timing of buying convertible bonds for investors. Our empirical study exhibits there has no momentum effect in Taiwan convertible bonds market. Conversely, we discover the presence of overreaction effect but it is insignificant. Moreover, it¡¦s effective to predict the return of convertible bond by using the stocks return, otherwise it¡¦s not. Finally, the strategy of using the stock return in predicting the return of convertible bond can earn abnormal return without considering the transaction cost. On the contrary, the performance of using the return of convertible bond in predicting the stock return is insignificant. Our results demonstrate that we can refer to the past literature about ¡§the reaction of corporate bond to the fundamental information of companies falls behind the stock¡¨ to invest in convertible bond profitably. In conclusion, investors can follow our empirical framework and result to forecast the price trend of the convertible bond by referring the stock price.