张五常《经济解释》对法律经济学方法论之启示

本文回顾张五常教授《经济解释》与其他著作中与法律经济学方法论有关之部分,除了摘述其核心思想,本文并提出意见不同处。本文对制度费用之界定更宽,并先定义信息成本之范畴。外部性观念对法律经济学者仍有正面帮助,因为对法律经济学者,法令是可以改变的局限条件,而降低外部性也不需仰赖政府直接介入。制度费用高者,租值消散高;而不同制度所隐含的租值高低,正可以用有效率与无效率来描述。效率概念仍应保留作为制度改革良窳之量尺。产权的概念是制度经济学与法律经济学的共同核心,但定义方式始终不同。本文认为,后者的产权概念,较诸前者,能有效与法律体系接轨,并考虑更多制度细节,并能清楚界定。     

Production frontier methodologies and efficiency as a performance measure in strategic management research

The measurement of corporate performance is central to strategic management research. A common objective of this research is to identify top performers in an industry and their sources of competitive advantage. Despite this focus on best firms and practices, most researchers utilize statistical methods that identify average effects in a sample, and they assess a single performance dimension while ignoring other relevant dimensions. Emphasis on purely financial measures can overlook the fact that a firm's efficiency in transforming resources has been shown as a major source of competitive advantage. In this article we demonstrate how frontier methodologies, such as Data Envelopment Analysis and the Stochastic Frontier approach, can address these challenges. We provide an illustration based on longitudinal data from U.S. and Japanese automobile producers. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A retrospective study to assess the epidemiological and economic burden of pneumococcal diseases in adults aged 50 years and older in Taiwan

Objective:

Invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) and pneumococcal pneumonia cause substantial morbidity and mortality worldwide. This retrospective study was conducted to estimate the disease burden from pneumococcal disease in older adults in Taiwan from a health insurer’s perspective.

Methods:

Data for the years 2002–2009 from patients aged ≥50 years with insurance records indicating pneumococcal meningitis, pneumococcal bacteremia, or hospitalized or outpatient pneumonia were obtained from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. Admission data for inpatients, visit data for outpatients, and associated costs were extracted from the database to estimate the incidence, case fatality rates, and direct and indirect costs of pneumococcal disease episodes. These data were applied to the estimated population of Taiwan in 2010 to provide an estimated disease burden for a single year from the payer perspective.

Results:

The average incidence per 100,000 person years was 2.4 for IPD, 278.8 for hospitalized pneumococcal pneumonia, and 1376.4 for outpatient pneumococcal pneumonia. The average case fatality rate was 12.3% for IPD and 10.0% for hospitalized pneumonia. Hospitalized pneumonia accounted for over 90% of direct medical costs. The incidence of hospitalized pneumococcal pneumonia per 100,000 person years was 84.4 for adults of 50–64 years, 313.1 for adults of 65–74 years, 820.3 for adults of 75–84 years, and 1650.9 for adults of 85+ year of age. In 2010, it was estimated there were over 113,000 episodes of pneumococcal disease, causing almost 2000 deaths, with direct medical costs of more than NT$3.4 billion annually.

Conclusions:

Pneumococcal disease is a significant cause of mortality and excess healthcare expense among the elderly in Taiwan. Disease burden in older adults increases with advancing age.     

The influence of dispositional affect and cognition on venture investment portfolio concentration

We explore how an investor's dispositional affect and cognitive style influence venture investment portfolio concentration. Based on a field study using a sample of 128 judges from a business plan competition, we find that high positive affectivity investors construct more concentrated investment portfolios than their low positive affectivity counterparts, whereas high negative affectivity investors construct more diversified investment portfolios than their low negative affectivity counterparts. Further, investors who rely on analytical decision making display a weaker relationship between negative affectivity and investment diversification whereas investors who rely on emotion-based decision making display a stronger relationship between positive affectivity and investment concentration.     

Data mining for improving the solder bumping process in the semiconductor packaging industry

Modern semiconductor manufacturing is very complex and expensive. Maintaining high quality and yield enhancement have been recognized as important factors to build core competences for semiconductor manufacturing companies. Data mining can find potentially useful information from huge databases. This paper proposes a data-mining framework based on decision-tree induction for improving the yield of the solder bumping process in which the various (physical and chemical) input variables that affect the bumping process exhibit highly complex interactions. We conducted an empirical study in a semiconductor fabrication facility in Taiwan to validate this approach. The results show that the proposed approach can effectively derive the causal relationships among controllable input process factors and the target class to enhance the yield. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of web-based versus classroom-based STEM learning environments on the development of collaborative problem-solving skills in junior high school students

Collaborative problem-solving skills are one of the key competencies required in the twenty-first century. In this study, researchers attempted to compare the effectiveness of web-based collaborative problem-solving systems (wCPSS) and classroom-based collaborative hands-on learning activities (cCHLA) in the development of collaborative problem-solving skills in junior high school students who were learning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-related subjects. A quasi-experimental, nonequivalent pretest–posttest control group design was employed, and 241 junior high school students were invited to participate in the study. According to the results, a wCPSS-supported environment with teacher guidance was found to be more effective than either a wCPSS-supported environment without teacher guidance or a cCHLA-facilitated environment in developing students’ collaborative problem-solving skills in STEM fields. The study suggested that a web-based collaborative problem-solving system with teacher guidance can be used in developing junior high students’ collaborative problem-solving skills in STEM education.     

Identifying Critical Brand Contact Elements of a Tourist Destination: Applications of Kano's Model and the Importance–satisfaction Model

A destination brand comprises brand elements that lead tourists to form a brand impression of a destination. Based on a literature review, this study contributes to a model for exploring tourist destination brand contact experiences. The results from applying Kano's model and the importance–satisfaction model to a specific hot spring destination indicate that four types of contact elements can be identified as having different quality attributes. The contact elements related to staff's service efficiency, attitude and willingness of serving customers are identified as the critical brand contact elements for the tourist destination. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effects of Macroeconomic Factors on Pricing Mortgage Insurance Contracts

Numerous empirical studies, including Abraham and Hendershott (1996) , Muellbauer and Murphy (1997) , Leung (2004) , and Oikarinen (2009) , have identified a significant relationship between housing prices and macroeconomic factors. Using a linear regression on the comovement of macroeconomic factors and housing prices, this article employs an option‐pricing framework to price and hedge the fair premia of mortgage insurance (MI). Our model provides improved performance in terms of MI premium pricing, especially during periods that are characterized by high housing prices. Ignoring the impacts of macroeconomic factors on housing prices will lead to an underestimation of MI premia.