Koyin Chang

A Study of Suicide and Socioeconomic Factors

The topic of suicide has long been an important socioeconomic issue studied in many countries. Suicides inject an atmosphere of unrest into society, and media attention furthers that social uneasiness. From the viewpoint of economics and management, suicide is a waste of human resource: it decreases the labor force in society and deteriorates human capital. This paper provides a series of analyses of suicide rate based on theoretical reasoning and empirical approaches. Aggregate data from G7 countries are obtained and stacked into panel data for analysis. Data are collected for different age groups. Even though suicide issues have been extensively discussed in the past, newly developed econometric tools are applied to her. Beyond previously recognized relationships between economic factors and suicide rates findings include that unemployment strikes men more than women in terms of psychological pressure: for middle age or older women, unemployment may even be positive for the entire family; and female labor force participation exerts pressure on male counterparts and increases its suicide rate. As a result, a low income family with an unemployed man and an employed woman is at high risk for adult male suicide.

The effectiveness of alcohol control policies on alcohol-related traffic fatalities in the United States

Multiple alcohol control policies have been enacted since the early 1980s to keep drunk drivers off the roads and to prevent more alcohol-related traffic fatalities. In this paper, we analyze nine traffic policies to determine the extent to which each policy contributes to effective alcohol-related fatality prevention. Compared with the existing literature, this paper addresses a more comprehensive set of traffic policies. In addition, we used a panel GLS model that holds regional effects and state-specific time effects constant to analyze their impact on alcohol-related fatalities with two distinct rates: alcohol-related traffic deaths per capita and alcohol-related traffic deaths per total traffic deaths. While per capita alcohol-related traffic deaths is used more often in other studies, alcohol-related traffic deaths per total traffic deaths better reflects the impact of policies on deterring drunk driving. In addition, regional analyses were conducted to determine the policies that are more effective in certain regions. The findings of this study suggest that zero tolerance laws and increased beer taxes are the most effective policies in reducing alcohol-related fatalities in all regions.

External benefits of preserving agricultural land: Taiwan's rice fields

Abstract Agricultural production for many countries seems to generate a negative economic profit due to waves of industrialization in the past several decades. One of the main reasons is that the value of the land in non-agricultural uses rises considerably. However, the profitability of agricultural production may be underestimated if the positive externalities associated with farmland are not included. A proper accounting for these positive externalities casts agricultural production in a more favorable light. This paper focuses on paddy rice fields in Taiwan. A double-bounded dichotomous Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) is combined with the selection-bias-correction procedure to estimate the magnitude of the positive externalities. The evidence suggests that the majority of people in Taiwan recognize the externalities of paddy rice fields. Each household is willing to pay on average about

The Effectiveness of Drinking and Driving Policies for Different Alcohol-Related Fatalities: A Quantile Regression Analysis

1777.92 NT annually to sustain the rice fields’ water preservation and land protection functions, which is about 3.57-fold of the intrinsic economic value of rice. Thus, the rising opportunity costs of retaining land in agricultural production is not yet sufficient to justify a reallocation of this resource from agriculture to other uses. The policy prescription favors retention of the land in agricultural production. In fact, if efficiency is the goal of policy makers, men Taiwan can maintain rice field area up to three times more than currently present under the situation without further government subsidy.

The strategic alliance of the biotechnology firm

To understand the impact of drinking and driving laws on drinking and driving fatality rates, this study explored the different effects these laws have on areas with varying severity rates for drinking and driving. Unlike previous studies, this study employed quantile regression analysis. Empirical results showed that policies based on local conditions must be used to effectively reduce drinking and driving fatality rates; that is, different measures should be adopted to target the specific conditions in various regions. For areas with low fatality rates (low quantiles), people’s habits and attitudes toward alcohol should be emphasized instead of transportation safety laws because “preemptive regulations” are more effective. For areas with high fatality rates (or high quantiles), “ex-post regulations” are more effective, and impact these areas approximately 0.01% to 0.05% more than they do areas with low fatality rates.

An Empirical Study on Health in Taiwan and its Long-Term Adjustment

This article applies the relevant theories of firm organization and inter-firm relationships in the high-tech environment to explain the institutional reasons that firms choose between internal or external approaches. Particularly, this study tries to understand to what extent and in what way strategic alliances have impacts on individual firms’ organizational structure, financial structure and firms’ activities. Also it tries to find out what type of firms tend to benefit most from alliances, and thus use more inter-firm agreements. The theoretical findings are that due to liquidity constraint and asymmetric information reasons, young, research-intensive firms need to use more alliances to survive in the fast changing high-technology industry. The empirical analysis employs 3 year panel data and finds that the results are consistent with the theoretical predictions.

Study of Patients’ Willingness to Pay for a Cure of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in Taiwan

This paper investigates the dynamic change of the population health status in Taiwan. Specifically, it provides insight into the empirical determinants of health production function and explores the nature of the long-term adjustment in health performance. For these purposes, panel data are used incorporating dynamic effects as well as controls for unobservable area-specific effect and area-invariant time effect. The findings are consistent with the earlier research in terms of the determinants of the health production function. The result of the present paper suggests that after decades of improvement in health care, people in Taiwan have lower age-adjusted mortality rates. Also, the decreases in mortality rates follow a rapid pace of long-term adjustment implying that health-care policy that focuses on the provision of medical care services substantially benefits the nations health.

Investigating stationarity in tourist arrivals to Taiwan using panel KPSS with sharp drifts and smooth breaks.

Objectives: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is one of the fastest growing causes of death worldwide. However, few studies, if any, have been conducted that have investigated patient profiles in Asia. This paper analyzes patient willingness to pay (WTP) as a function of patient disease severity, health-related quality of life (HRQL), and smoking behavior in Taiwan. Study Design: A cross-sectional survey was conducted using in-person interviews with COPD patients. A hypothetical scenario was designed and presented to ascertain each subject’s willingness to pay (WTP) for a cure for COPD. Methods: A survey of subjects with COPD was performed in Taiwan. The contingent valuation method (CVM) was employed to measure patient financial burden, which was analyzed along with covariates that included various types of health-related quality of life (HRQL), severity level, and demographic background. Multivariate regression and simulation methods were employed for analysis. Results: A total of 142 subjects were interviewed, with an average annual WTP of approximately

The impact of alcohol policies on alcohol-attributable diseases in Taiwan—A population-based study

1422 USD (or 42,662.37 NTD, New Taiwan Dollars). The annual WTP for patients 55 years of age or younger,

Dynamic Financial Decisions with Varying Degrees of Information Asymmetry and Profitability

5709.06, was the highest and equivalent to approximately one-third of Taiwan average annual personal income or quadruple the spending amount of the Taiwan National Bureau of Health Insurance (NBHI) for each COPD patient. Current cigarette smokers were willing to pay a substantially higher amount than former smokers and nonsmokers, which reflects a psychological desire for redemption in COPD patients. Conclusions: The results of this study provide directions for the relevant authorities regarding the alleviation of suffering as a result of COPD. Appropriate health promotion measures, such as measures to reduce tobacco usage, early diagnosis, and active treatment, may be necessary to contain the escalating costs related to COPD and to prevent this epidemic from worsening.