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本文主要研究兩個議題，包含對大陸投資對台灣經濟成長影響與影響對大陸投資的因素。以1991~2006的年資料與季資料，用SVAR模型討論各變數間的衝擊反應與預測誤差變異數分解分析，在衝擊反映的實證結果可以發現對大陸投資對台灣經濟成長率的影響在短期是負向的效果，表示增加對大陸投資在短期會導致國內生產減少，可能與替代國內生產的傾向有關，但結果也可以發現負向效果並非一直持續。而在影響對大陸投資的因素部份，選取的解釋變數包含大陸國內生產毛額、大陸地區平均薪資、大陸零售物價指數、人民幣對美金的匯率、往返香港人次與政策的虛擬變數，用1988~2006年的年資料以OLS和FMLS模型分析，在OLS模型中，除了大陸地區平均薪資、往返香港人次這兩個變數之外，其他變數的實證結果皆為顯著，而在FMLS模型中，則僅有大陸國內生產毛額、往返香港人次、政策的虛擬變數的變數在實證結果中呈現顯著，因此可以發現影響廠商對大陸投資的因素不再如早年時，是因為低工資、低成本的動機，而轉為以市場大小的決定動機，這一個結論也可以呼應用SVAR模型中，對大陸投資對台灣經濟成長影響雖然短期呈現負向情況，但負向反應並非一直持續，可能表示對大陸投資動機的改變讓對大陸投資對台灣經濟成長率的影響不再只有負向的情況。

In today’s economy and society, efficiency in the financial sector (lending sector) and performance analysis in agricultural financing industry attract more and more attention. The main purpose of the study is to demonstrate if lending institutions in Belize are performing efficiently towards agricultural financing growth in collaboration with different stakeholders and for their own capacity development. This document is divided into two major sections that play a vital role in Belize’s economy. The first section analyzes technical efficiency of lending institution (commercial banks, credit union and other financial institution) in Belize from 2008 to 2012 by using Data Envelope Analysis (DEA). The technical efficiency was analyzed sequentially with a certain window width using panel data for 10 lending institutions. The second section was a strategic assessment of agricultural finance in Belize. To date there has been too much reliance on what the outer world would offer and too little stock-taking of what Belize could create or generate with her own resources. Such that there is a need to increase the living standards of farmers through financing in order to stabilize and increase Belize economic growth. This can only be achieved by identifying the major problems in agriculture financing to provide suggestions for the improvement of an effective financing framework and policy implications to be implemented. Presently, most of the programs and policies are not achieving the objectives for which they were designed. This assessment used qualitative and quantitative data which revealed that most farmers have no access to any kind of financial service (payments, safekeeping, credit and insurance), which hampers the efficiency and security of their operations. Many farmers struggle to pay their seasonal harvest inputs, and investing in agricultural technology and expansion is even more difficult, even though there is great potential for agriculture expansion in Belize. The study draws on the experiences gained and vast literature from lending institution efficiency and the use of Taiwan agricultural finance framework special features. The study emphasizes on the importance of financing efficiency and agricultural financing. This role includes the provision of food, employment, raw materials for local industries and foreign exchange earnings for the development of the nation, therefore, the need for this study. The analysis concludes that agricultural production and financing will remain an issue of interest in an effort to raise agricultural production and productivity, as the implementation of macroeconomic policies under the economic deregulation policy will continue to affect the whole economy in general and the agricultural sector in particular. The study’s recommendations focused on both institutional aspects (the financial sector) and general policy implication recommendations (financial products, risk-mitigation mechanisms).

Minimizing femtocell interference, maximizing resource efficiency and ensuring quality of service (QoS) are important challenges in the design of protocols for femtocell networks. Techniques of interference avoidance, resource efficiency improvement, and QoS guarantee consist in finding an optimal assignment of physical resource blocks (PRBs). For example, in dense area deployments, only resources that are not occupied by interfering neighbors can be assigned with considerations of employed resources and required service qualities. In this thesis, we address the optimal PRB assignments in orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) femtocell networks. Typically, all femtocells operate in the co-channel deployment, and schedule for different connections dynamically. We seek a resource-optimal distribution that maximizes spectral efficiency while ensuring simultaneous femtocell connectivity quality to femtocell management systems, which are constrained to form an interference graph used as an assignment distribution. First, we formulate this problem as an Integer Linear Programming model. Then, we implement a greedy algorithm to solve the allocation problems. Experimental results show that the proposed model provides optimal spectral efficiency values according to the dynamic femtocell loading.

In this study we chose Fujian and Taiwan for a comparative case study of cultivated land changes. Separated by a short strait, these two regions are similar in biophysical and cultural characteristics but differ in the level of economic development. Taiwan is ahead of Fujian by 15 to 20 years in economic development. We compared quantitative and qualitative changes of cultivated land in these two regions, and analyzed the proximate causes and the driving forces for cultivated land changes over time. The study showed a time lag, similar to that of economic development, in the dynamic (i.e., greater rates of change) period of cultivated land changes and the ranking of major driving forces. The results suggest that similar land-use changes can occur in different regions as the regions pass through comparable stages of economic development at different times. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In Tai wan over the past decades there has been enormous economic growth and rapid westernization of people's life style, as well as a concomitant rise in coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality and morbidity. Studying the effects of such a degree of socioeconomic development on the coronary risk factors of the Chinese population, an ethnic group long regarded as having a low incidence of CHD, may provide some insight into the etiology of coronary atherosclerosis. Coronary risk factors among 1,449 patients ( 759 with CHD) were retrospectively studied. Diagnosis was established by angiography or a definite history of myocardial infarction in approximately 60% of the patients, and for the remainder, at least by noninvasive testing. The frequencies of dyslipidemia and nonlipid risk factors in patients with and without CHD were determined and compared. The lipid levels of subjects with or without CHD were close to or approaching those reported from the United States. Socioeconomic development and changes in dietary patterns seem influential in this regard. Among risk factors, high- density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), smoking, diabetes mellitus, hypertension and family history in males and, in females, total cholesterol, HDL-C, diabetes mellitus and hypertension, were significantly and independently correlated with CHD. These risk factors are similar to those found in the West; however, there is an important association of serum HDLC concentrations with CHD, irrespective of gender. This issue requires further study in Chinese populations in other Asian countries.

This paper explores the dynamics of the economic development of Taipei City under conditions of globalization. Although Taipei City had undergone rapid industrialization and exploited the rural-urban division of labor since at least the 1960s, the city's economic base changed dramatically after 1980. Initiating a process of industrial restructuring, the nation state encouraged high technology industries to help upgrade Taipei City's role within global production chains. It was the transnational connection that kept regional growth within high 'value-added' activities. Instead of relying on a few major transnational corporations as the key agents of internationalization, Taipei City transformed itself into a node for high-technology knowledge, which connected the city with high-technology hubs elsewhere, and to Silicon Valley in particular, through transnational technical communities. At the same time, companies headquartered in the city extended their production chains across the Taiwan Strait to locate production facilities in the major coastal cities of mainland China. In consequence, Taipei City became a nodal city in these cross-border connections. These developments illustrate the limits of global city discourses which fail to pay sufficient attention to the role of developmental states and transnationalism in the process of global transformation. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ammonia removal and recovery from wastewater have been a critical issue worldwide and a key to achieve a sustainable nitrogen cycle and circular economy. Conventional ammonia removal via air stripping needs pH adjustment pretreatment with chemical additives while electrokinetic technologies can provide electrochemically in-situ pH control without chemicals needed. The integration of electrokinetic and air stripping technologies is a potential process for the simultaneous removal/recovery of ammonia/ammonium from wastewater. This study consolidates research findings of the separate research domains of electrokinetic and air stripping technologies and aims to identify an integrated process for the simultaneous nitrogen removal/recovery from waste streams. Process integration involves research on improved ammonia removal efficiencies and liquid side mass transfer performances using innovative air stripping system designs and gas-liquid contactors, e.g., rotating packed beds and membrane contactors, compared with the conventional stripping tower process. Findings in the applications and performances of electrokinetic separation processes, including electrodialysis, electrodeionization, capacitive deionization, electrochemical cell, and bio-electrochemical systems, on the removal/recovery of ammonia/ammonium, are a crucial link to integration as well. Energy consumptions between 5–20.4 kWh/kg–NH4-N with a removal ratio of around 90% for electrokinetic processes are currently achievable, and some groups can be implemented on the biodegradable organic substrates from urine. Innovative hybrid technologies of ammonia nitrogen removal/recovery with energy production and co-product valorization that reduce the overall cost and energy consumption via integrated processes optimization, and discussions on the environmental impact assessment (via life cycle assessment) and economic benefit analysis (via techno-economic analysis) of ammonia recovery practices on waste streams are investigated. ? 2021

This paper provides an overview of the interrelationships between tourism and sustainability from a cross-disciplinary perspective. The current challenges and barriers in the tourism sustainability, such as high energy use, extensive water consumption and habitat destruction, are first reviewed. Then the key cross-disciplinary elements in sustainable tourism, including green energy, green transportation, green buildings, green infrastructure, green agriculture and smart technologies, are discussed. To overcome the challenges and barriers, a few implementation strategies on achieving sustainable tourism from the aspects of policy/regulation, institution, finance, technology and culture are proposed, along with the framework and details of a key performance indicator system. Finally, prospects of the potential for tourism to contribute to the transformative changes, e.g., a green economy system, are illustrated. This paper shine a light on issues of importance within sustainable tourism and encourage researchers from different disciplines in investigating the inter-relationships among community/culture, environment/ecology, and energy/water/food more broadly.

In Taiwan, a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions occur as a result of anthropogenic activities and rapid urbanization. In order to comply with the ‘Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act’ and the “Nationally Determined Contribution” to abide by Paris Agreement, the Taiwanese Environmental Protection Administration has devised a framework for a carbon offset mechanism before a cap and trade scheme is introduced. This paper gives a snapshot of the Taiwanese context in implementing offset projects using a combination of a strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats (SWOT) analysis and multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) for the development of domestic carbon offset projects. An analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and a technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) are used for quantitative analysis to identify the most feasible strategic alternatives in the SWOT matrix. A comparison analysis is conducted to compare the framework and governance of the Taiwanese carbon offset mechanism to a clean development mechanism (CDM). The results show that the weaknesses identify a potential alternative and the strengths and opportunities significantly overcome the threat. Therefore, the priority strategies include the establishment of an integrated authority, the development of more governmental agencies and an improvement in the economy. Finally, a sound cap and trade scheme, stakeholder involvement, public-private-people partnerships and goals that allow sustainable development are proposed. © 2019

This study, based on the Taiwan dynamic computable general equilibrium model-energy, hydrogen (TAIGEM-EH), provides an economic baseline forecast for petroleum and hydrogen economies in Taiwan in 2004-2030. Through survey data on existing energy sectors and other industries, TAIGEM-EH predicts that developing hydrogen economy presents an appropriate strategy for meeting the Kyoto Protocol's CO2 emissions mitigation target with attempt to keep economic growth. Hydrogen economy is noted sensitive to industrial structure and rate of technical progress on hydrogen production. Transition from petroleum economy to hydrogen economy acquires strong governmental support and significant technical progress. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The development of cost-effective and energy-efficient technologies to recover nutrients from digestate is important. Anaerobic digestate can be concentrated into bio-nutrient products through an electrodialysis (ED) process in an energy-efficient manner. Despite recent advances, the operation modes of ED for nutrient recovery from swine digestate are yet to be systematically evaluated from the perspective of energy-water efficiencies, and the determination of optimal operations in ED units is still ambiguous. In this study, two different operating modes of electrodialysis, i.e., constant voltage and constant current, are designed to evaluate the energy efficiency and effectiveness of nutrient recovery from anaerobic swine digestate. The ion removal ratio and current efficiency of the different modes and their associated electromigration performance (e.g., rate constants) are evaluated. The results indicate that the maximum removal efficiency (in terms of electrical conductivity) is 92.8% at a cell voltage of 2.4 V/cell using the constant voltage operation. The current efficiencies of NH4+ (43‒65%) are higher than that of other ions, such as K+ (12‒19%), Cl- (4‒7%), and PO43- (0.1‒1.5%). For nitrogen recovery, the required energy consumption was about 0.24‒15.2 kWh/kg-N (0.86‒54.7 kJ/g-N), corresponding to a removal ratio of ammonium from 70.8% to 99.1%. Based on the experimental data, the optimal operating conditions are identified using response surface models by considering process energy consumption and productivity to deliver energy-efficient nutrient separation. One candidate of the ideal conditions to achieve the total ion removal of ∼93% should be operated at a constant cell voltage of 1.15 V, corresponding to a productivity of 5.24 gal/hr/m2 at an energy consumption of 0.44 kWh/m3. Last, a conceptual design of cascading separation processes is proposed for digestate valorization as biofertilizers, nutrients, organic acids, and reclaimed water. A preliminary benefit-cost evaluation is then performed to evaluate the engineering and economic performance of the developed process for nutrient recovery from swine digestate. This article provides insight into practical large-scale applications of digestate valorization through energy-efficient separation, thereby realizing a circular economy system and a decarbonizing supply chain of bio-nutrients.

This study addresses the planning and implementation of energy, industry, and carbon economy policies concerning the development of the Taiwan's energy intensive industries from perspective of climate change. As a newly industrialized country, Taiwan attaches greater importance to the development of green energy and low-carbon industries, in cooperation with global pressure for carbon reduction due to climate changes, through energy and industrial conferences. Thus, in the past year the Taiwanese government constructed four laws concerning energy and carbon reduction in order to drive the green energy industry; furthermore, it plans to reduce current carbon emission benchmarks. Nevertheless, statistical analysis found that in the last decade, energy intensive industries have presented structural unbalance regarding energy consumption, CO 2 emissions, energy intensity, contributions to the GDP, and product value. Industries in the industrial sector have high energy consumption, high carbon emissions, and increase total domestic consumption and carbon emissions, which have disproportionate contributions to industrial added value; nevertheless, the government continues to approve investments for such energy intensive industries, and results in continuous increases in energy consumption and carbon emissions. This contradictory phenomenon indicates that newly industrialized countries rely on a manufacturing economic structure, which is difficult to adjust and violates the trends of a global low-carbon economy. Hence, the government must examine and adjust such unbalanced industrial structures, where such adjustments are executed in a fair and just manner, and encourage the development of high value-added measures for low-carbon manufacturing and service sectors to become equal with competitors in a global economy. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This article modifies the conventional two-stage DEA model to construct an analytical model for energy-related efficiency with undesirable outputs. Our proposed model relaxes the constraint that the inputs of the second process must come from the first process. As a result, our proposed model is more flexible than the original model in terms of the application of energy-related efficiency measurement analysis, and more policy implications may thus be provided by the decomposition of efficiencies for different processes. For demonstration purposes, the proposed model is applied to measure the energy use efficiency and the economic efficiency of 28 OECD countries during 2005 to 2007. The demonstration results reveal the following three findings. First, the average values of energy use efficiency are smaller than those of the average economic efficiency during the three-year period. It is shown that the OECD countries are only interested in economic development and are not concerned about energy use efficiency. Second, a tradeoff relationship exists between energy use efficiency and economic development for the OECD countries. Third, the differences of the initial carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions from the optimal CO 2 emissions as well as the average economic efficiency increase year by year. These results indicate that the OECD countries still discharge too much CO2. Finally, this article establishes a managerial decision-making matrix to divide 28 OECD countries into different positions according to their energy use and economic efficiencies, and provides improvement suggestions to policy makers. © 2015, Taiwan Association for Aerosol Research.

Contemporary world is characterized by a high level of competition. To survive and prosper in a marketplace, enterprises must respond to opportunities and threats to conquer it. Despite a growing recognition of the importance of Central America market as a potential market and the usefulness of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) as a managing tool to improve enterprise competitive performance, there has been little systematic research on this area. The purpose of this research is to (1) to understand Central American SME managers’ main characteristics and negotiations patterns (2) To classify and categorize managers into cultural dimension developed by Hofstede and Trompenaars’s theories (3) To use this information to help Taiwanese SME to have a deep understanding of Central America SME negotiation patterns in order to develop a successful consumer relationship management (CRM) in the future. Research results were conclude by participation in Trade Exhibition in Central American, direct observation and in deep interview. The data was analyzed based on two main theories: Hofstede and Trompenaars Cultural dimensions in order to avoid any oversimplified explanation. Both approaches allow managers to understand customer behavior trend and to realize how to do business in a country culturally different from the one at home. Applying CRM in Central American SME based on Hofstede Cultural Dimension, this study finds that those managers tend to be more: (1) Collectivism, (2) Strong Power distance, (Hierarchy) (3) High trend to uncertainty avoidance (4) Feminine perspective and (5) Short term orientation. While following Trompenaars Cultural Dimension, Central American SME manager are characterized as high trend to: (1) Particularism (2) Diffuse culture (3) Communitarianism (4) Outer Directed (5) Synchronous and (6) Ascription (7) Hierarchical structure. It is expected that findings of this study will guide Taiwanese SME to establish long lasting and valuable customer relationship with Central American Small and Medium Enterprises. Finally, It is important to remember that managers must create an intercultural frame mindset and “Recognize” that we live in a world with cultural differences, for instance we should “Respect” this heterogeneity and should try to “Reconcile” cultural differences.

Using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), we investigate the link between test scores (mathematics and science) and cross-country income differences. We would like to know whether test scores are good indicators of labor-force quality. The analysis suggests that after properly controlling other variables that are typical in cross-country economic growth study, the strong link between test scores and cross-country income differences disappears. Moreover, we show that variables such as Research and Development researchers (per capita) or Scientific and Technical journal articles (per capita) can better account for the cross-country income differences. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009.

One of major purposes of tourism development in a destination is to improve the quality of life (QOL) of host community. This study aims to assess tourism-related community quality of life (TCQOL). The study applied Sirgy and Cornell’s community QOL model (2001) and modified the measuring approach incorporating resident perceptions of satisfaction, importance, and tourism effects (Andereck and Nyaupane 2010) to evaluate resident perceptions of community quality of life in the context of tourism development. The assessment incorporating the community quality of life model and the modified measuring approach that could be a useful tool for tourism practitioners and scholars to understand resident perceptions of community QOL, assess changes of resident perceived community QOL in a host community, and compare the community QOL experiences to other areas. © 2014, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht and The International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS).

In Taiwan, the demand for rice has decreased with increasing demands for wheat and maize due to change of dietary habits. The deficiency in crop production has led to an overall food self-sufficiency rate lower than 40%, and thus strategies on planting distributions among different crops are necessary. In this study, rice, wheat, and maize were evaluated for crop suitability by considering soil, rainfall, temperature, irrigation, and soil erosion factors using multi-criteria assessment, hierarchical analysis, and one-at-a-time sensitivity analysis methods. The crop suitability maps showed that agricultural lands all over Taiwan have generally moderate or high suitability for rice cultivation, especially in southwestern Taiwan. Wheat is more suitable to grow on agricultural lands close to hills in central, northwestern, and southeastern Taiwan. Except for coastal areas in the western plains, many agricultural lands in Taiwan are found suitable for maize. Sensitivity analysis showed that provisions of water during the growing season have more evident effects on the cultivation of all three crops, compared to the effects of temperature and soil characteristics. Comparison among the cultivated regions and crop suitability maps indicated that rice has been cultivated in extensive regions throughout Taiwan, but wheat and maize were found in limited locations despite the high proportions of suitable land conditions. This suggests high potential of enhancing the cultivation areas for wheat and maize based on agroecological conditions of the lands. This study contributes to provide land allocation strategies for effective cultivation and to promote sustainable land use.

Implementing effective resource management is crucial for urban sustainability. Potential resource management strategies should be assessed under the framework of a resource nexus to avoid problem shifting. The urban metabolism of food, energy, and water is driven by lifestyle, industrial structure, and infrastructure. This study employed material flow analysis to identify resource metabolism through the phases of supply, process, demand, and final sink. The resource intensity of urban activities and the risk of the nexus of resources were quantified to illuminate management strategies. This study investigated the food-energy-water nexus (FEW nexus) for a small and multi-sector island city, Kinmen, and found that the nexus risk of water for food is the highest. Water and energy consumption have excessive loads on resource metabolism in a multi-sector city, and the main demand sectors increase the nexus risk in water for food. The results indicated that higher risk results from higher resource consumption intensity, particularly in areas of economic growth. Resource management of the FEW nexus needs the best tradeoff strategy to meet the goals of urban metabolism sustainability. The risk assessment framework can support the design of optimal resource management strategies to pursue urban sustainability. Consequently, given the limitations of water treatment technology, the impact of energy risk mitigation is poor (below 4% of energy risk in 2015) and the energy risk will continue to increase (by about 10% based on the economic activity). As a result, imported water is the best tradeoff strategy to meet the FEW nexus safety for Kinmen City as a low-resource and sightseeing activity area. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd