从一个社会热点问题看统计教学

随着统计学在日常生活、社会调查研究中的应用越来越广泛，统计错用、滥用的现象也层出不穷，造成诸多的错误与误解。根据当下的一个社会热点，分析了当前统计教学与实践中可能出现的问题，如变量定义不明、方法选择不合理、相关关系和因果关系混淆等，并提出了注重方法应用条件、进行探究型教学等开展优质统计教学的几点建议。     

To improve investors' valuation of accounting earnings in emerging markets: evidence from Taiwan

The valuation of accounting earnings is related to the level of earnings management used by the firm. In emerging markets where earnings management is typically pervasive, investors lose confidence in accounting earnings and thus tend to under‐value earnings. Using data from Taiwan, we show that better governance characteristics are associated with improved investor valuation of accounting earnings. Under weaker governance structures, such as excessive control on the part of majority shareholders, small board size, and chief executive officer/chairman of the board duality, the market tends to under‐value accounting earnings. Reducing controlling shareholders' ownership, increasing board size, and reinforcing the monitoring function of the board improves investors' ability to value accounting earnings. Copyright © 2010 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Good deeds earn chits? Evidence from philanthropic family controlled firms

This study examines whether charitable family controlled firms have lower default risk. Using Taiwan data that provide clear information about firms’ benevolent intention and avoid endogeneity issue of risk and charitable activities, we show that charitable family controlled firms have lower default risk, which is proxied by value-at-risk and expected shortfall measures. Our finding shows that charitable activities bring benefits of lower risk to shareholders. This study also provides various channels that can lower default risk for the charitable firms. That is, these firms appear to have higher credit ratings, engage less in earnings management, and have higher worker productivity. This study argues that the benevolent mindset of decision makers at firms help lower default risk.     

Price discovery in Taiwan's foreign exchange market

This paper investigates the dynamics of price adjustments and the price discovery roles of two markets on Taiwan's foreign exchange, TFI and CFE. Results from the multivariate threshold model indicate prices are integrated nonlinearly. The roles of price discovery are asymmetric, depending on the size and sign of the price discrepancies between the two markets. In the lower regime of discrepancies, each market employs information from its counterpart and reacts to each other with different adjustment speeds. When the discrepancy is in the upper regime, CFE's role of price discovery is characterized by its exogenous behavior within the error-correction process.     

Money,barter, and consumption interdependence

By introducing a degree of consumption interdependence into a search model, we show that people may switch from using money to bartering during hyperinflation, but barter activities, however, could still be popular even though the inflation rate is low.     

A scenario planning approach for the flood emergency logistics preparation problem under uncertainty

This paper aims to develop a decision-making tool that can be used by government agencies in planning for flood emergency logistics. In this article, the flood emergency logistics problem with uncertainty is formulated as two stochastic programming models that allow for the determination of a rescue resource distribution system for urban flood disasters. The decision variables include the structure of rescue organizations, locations of rescue resource storehouses, allocations of rescue resources under capacity restrictions, and distributions of rescue resources. By applying the data processing and network analysis functions of the geographic information system, flooding potential maps can estimate the possible locations of rescue demand points and the required amount of rescue equipment. The proposed models are solved using a sample average approximation scheme. Finally, a real example of planning for flood emergency logistics is presented to highlight the significance of the proposed model as well as the efficacy of the proposed solution strategy.     

The choice between civil service and entrepreneurship in the presence of credit rationing

This article examines the role of opportunities to be civil servants in determining both an individual’s ability to borrow to be an entrepreneur and his career choices that are related to the endowment of wealth. It is assumed that the civil servants are hired to produce the public goods or services that benefit all the entrepreneurs hiring workers to produce private goods. In considering the case where the position of a civil servant is randomly up for grabs without rent-seeking, it is known that the effect of a rise in the number of civil servants to be hired on an individual’s ability to borrow is mainly based on the improved efficiency and a rise in the wage due to an increase in the demand for workers. When the position of a civil servant is secured through rent-seeking, it is found that an improvement in the financial environment will lower the cost of rent-seeking if the welfare of the civil servant is not too high.     

Corporate governance in Taiwan: The nonmonotonic relationship between family ownership and dividend policy

This study considers an important aspect of corporate governance: the relationship between cash flow rights and dividend payout policy of listed family firms in Taiwan, an economy characterized by a predominance of family-controlled firms. Dividend payout levels are important because they are crucial to governing the firm and managing its investments. The empirical results show that at a low level of controlling families’ cash flow rights, the threat to lose control at any time makes controlling families claim more in dividends. This yields a positive relationship between dividend payout and the cash flow rights of controlling families at this level. Meanwhile, at a moderate level of controlling families’ cash flow rights, the entrenchment effect becomes more robust and creates a negative relationship with dividend payout. Finally, at the very highest level of controlling families’ cash flow rights, excessive firm-specific risk again helps to again create a positive relationship. This nonmonotonic relationship between controlling family cash flow rights and dividend payout also holds for financially mature firms that have a high earned to contributed capital mix.