Impact of Cross-Strait Trade Liberalization： A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis

This paper applies a computable general equilibrium model to investigate the potential economic effects of trade liberalization across the Taiwan Strait. Our simulation results reveal that cross-Strait trade liberalization will have significant positive impacts on external trade, domestic investment and real GDP for the economies in this area in general and in Taiwan in particular. Furthermore, the negative impact from the formation of a free trade arrangement between Taiwan and Chinese Mainland on Hong Kong seems to be rather small. These results suggest that cross-Strait trade liberalization is very likely to bring about a win-win situation for the economies in this area.     

贸易财属性与贸易政策竞争均衡

本文利用两国两异质财货的产业内贸易模型,讨论贸易财属性与贸易政策竞争均衡的决定,并获得以下结论:(1)当两国政府均采取相同的进口或出口政策时,不论产品的消费性质,最适进口贸易政策均为课税;最适出口贸易政策将随贸易财的消费性质而定.替代品为出口补贴,互补品为出口课税.(2)当产品为替代品且厂商在两国市场均实行数量竞争的情况下,进口课税政策虽将成为两国政府的优势策略,但出口补贴政策则更具有效率.在产品为互补品且厂商在两国市场均实行价格竞争的情况下,当产品的互补程度较小(大)时,进口课税(出口课税)政策将成为两国政府的优势策略;当互补程度中等时,两国政府有可能采取差异性的贸易政策.     

Determination of a hospital management policy using conjoint analysis in the analytic network process

When making management performance decisions, administrators frequently utilize balanced scorecard (BSC) to measure performance because the BSC does not excessively focus on financial measures and seeks a balance among customer perspectives, learning and growth, internal business processes and financial measures. A growing number of studies have applied the analytic hierarchical process (AHP) method to choose BSC metrics for management performance. These AHP methods assume that criteria are independent. Saaty (Decision making with dependence and feedback: the analytic network process. RWS Publications, Pittsburgh, 1996) presented the analytic network process (ANP) method to solve the limitations that criteria are independent. Conventional ANP methods involve complex calculations when the number of criteria increases. Hence, this study attempts to integrate conjoint analysis (CA) and the ANP method to simplify the ANP calculation procedure. Additionally, the decision of management policy is utilized with BSC to determine whether the situation at a hospital demonstrates the feasibility of integrating CA with ANP. Study results reveal that the proposed methodology increases the efficiency of decision making among policymakers and reduces associated risks     

Caregiver priorities for endpoints to evaluate treatments for Prader-Willi syndrome: a best–worst scaling

Abstract

Objectives: Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a rare genetic disorder associated with varying degrees of hyperphagia, obesity, intellectual disability, and anxiety across the affected individuals’ lifetimes. This study quantified caregiver priorities for potential treatment endpoints to identify unmet needs in PWS.

Methods: The authors partnered with the International Consortium to Advance Clinical Trials for PWS (PWS-CTC) and a diverse stakeholder advisory board to develop a best–worst scaling instrument. Seven relevant endpoints were assessed using a balanced incomplete block design. Caregivers were asked to determine the most and least important of a sub-set of four endpoints in each task. Caregivers were recruited nationally though patient registries, email lists, and social media. Best–worst score was calculated to determine caregiver priorities; ranging from 0 (least important) to 10 (most important). A novel kernel-smoothing approach was used to analyze caregiver endpoint priority variations with relation to age of the PWS individual.

Results: In total, 457 caregivers participated in the study. Respondents were mostly parents (97%), females (83%), and Caucasian (87%) who cared for a PWS individual ranging from 4–54 years. Caregivers value treatments addressing hyperphagia (score?=?7.08, SE?=?0.17) and anxiety (score?=?6.35, SE?=?0.16) as most important. Key variations in priorities were observed across age, including treatments targeting anxiety, temper outbursts, and intellectual functions.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates that caregivers prioritize hyperphagia and, using a novel method, demonstrates that this is independent of the age of the person with PWS. This is even the case for parents of young children who have yet to experience hyperphagia, indicating that these results are not subject to a hypothetical bias.     

The Influence of Confucianism on Women’s Leisure in Taiwan

Abstract

Confucian philosophy has traditionally had a considerable influence on many aspects of the lives of the Taiwanese people. It is therefore necessary to take this belief structure into account in order to explain Taiwanese women’s leisure perceptions and behaviours. The purpose of this study is to examine this issue. The factors that constrain women’s leisure in Taiwan are identified. These categories can be broadly termed economic, domestic, social, and cultural constraints     

TOURISM AND HOTEL COMPETITIVENESS RESEARCH

Competitiveness has been a subject of study in the manufacturing and related sectors since the early 1990s. However, only recently have some researchers started to examine the tourism and hospitality competitiveness, both conceptually and empirically, with a particular focus on tourism destinations and the hotel industry. The goal of this article is to review the published studies on destination and hotel competitiveness, provide critiques, and point out future directions in tourism and hotel competitiveness research. Such a review shall provide researchers with a good understanding of the current status of competitiveness research and with a vision for advancing the existing knowledge of destination and hotel competitiveness.     

A Critical Investigation of the Bargaining Behavior of Tourists: The Case of Hong Kong Open-Air Markets

Shopping has long been recognized as an indispensable tourist activity. Hong Kong's open-air markets, where a multitude of bargaining activities can be observed, ranked as the second most popular of the island territory's diverse range of attractions in 2008 in terms of tourist arrivals. To develop cutting-edge marketing strategies that promote tourists' enjoyment of their bargaining adventure and ultimately enhance the overall shopping experience, the study reported in this article was aimed at identifying the dimensions underlying tourists' perceptions of the importance of 18 bargaining motivators and 12 bargaining attitudes and types of bargaining behavior, respectively, and subsequently evaluating the predictability of these underlying dimensions on tourists' shopping contentment indicators (overall bargaining satisfaction, the likelihood of a subsequent visit, and the likelihood of recommending open-air markets to others). A non-probability quota sampling technique was used to survey 203 Asian and non-Asian tourists in Hong Kong. A multivariate approach encompassing factor analysis and multiple regression was employed: Factor analysis delineated four underlying dimensions of factors affecting bargaining intentions. “Value for money” was shown to be the factor rated most important to tourists' bargaining intention; similarly, two underlying dimensions of bargaining attitudes and behavior—“bargain for psychological well-being” and “bargaining intensity”—were identified. Multiple regression results indicated the statistical significance of “bargaining for psychological well-being” and “bargaining intensity” to the existence of positive relations between shopping contentment indicators.     

The Relationships among Theatrical Components,Experiential Value,Relationship Quality,and Relationship Marketing Outcomes

Both marketing practitioners and academic researchers have traditionally recognized the major influence that relationship quality (RQ) has on relationship marketing outcomes. Differing from previous studies, this study proposes a more integrated model by including theatrical components and experiential value in the “RQ-relationship marketing outcomes” paradigm. The structural relationships among the variables are examined by adopting a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach in the context of a theme park. The results confirm the existence of the path “theatrical components → experiential value → RQ → relationship marketing outcomes”.     

Static hedging and pricing American knock-in put options

This paper extends the static hedging portfolio (SHP) approach of  and  to price and hedge American knock-in put options under the Black–Scholes model and the constant elasticity of variance (CEV) model. We use standard European calls (puts) to construct the SHPs for American up-and-in (down-and-in) puts. We also use theta-matching condition to improve the performance of the SHP approach. Numerical results indicate that the hedging effectiveness of a bi-monthly SHP is far less risky than that of a delta-hedging portfolio with daily rebalance. The numerical accuracy of the proposed method is comparable to the trinomial tree methods of  and . Furthermore, the recalculation time (the term is explained in Section 1) of the option prices is much easier and quicker than the tree method when the stock price and/or time to maturity are changed.     

Political issues in advertising polysemy: the case of gay window advertising

This study draws on minority consumers’ interpretations of purposefully polysemic commercials to explore political issues in the consumption of advertising, and highlights the sociopolitical role of niche-targeted advertising as a powerful cultural institution in informing and defining identities. The study focusses on how lesbian, gay male, and bisexual consumers make sense of gay-oriented, yet strategically polysemic, gay window commercials. Findings suggest that participants understood these messages through the lens of their unique subcultural sensitivity and in relation to their closeted experience and consciousness of marginalization. The political meanings of niche-targeted advertising are accentuated as these minority consumers negotiate the cultural tensions of their subcultural identity and their struggle between seeking subcultural validation and seeking mainstream assimilation.