Shih-n Hsu

The Potential for Water Market Efficiency When Instream Flows Have Value

Most of the effort being expended to revise western water policy concerns the maintenance of instream waters to the exclusion of traditional diversionary interests. Absent from the economics literature is a theoretical treatment addressing the interface between diversionary and instream water uses. At issue is the potential for refining market operations to accomplish efficient allocation in the presence of both diversionary and instream uses. Optimization methods are employed to examine this issue in a highly generalized framework. If a specific structure is adopted, markets and other incentive-based policies are demonstrated to be capable of efficient water allocation.

Performance measurement for incineration plants using multi-activity network data envelopment analysis: The case of Taiwan

This study proposes the use of multi-activity network data envelopment analysis to appraise how incineration plants in Taiwan perform. Sample data from 2006 is used to examine the trade-offs between efficiency enhancement and pollution abatement. The respective efficiencies of the waste treatment and electricity generation are also assessed in a unified framework. The empirical results indicate that it is more important to improve the efficiency of waste treatment activity than of electricity generation activity in order to enhance the overall performance of Taiwans incinerators. Since ownership, location and length of operations do not in general affect their performance, any improvement has to come from the careful monitoring of each process of the waste treatment operations. Furthermore, given that the policy in Taiwan has moved away from incineration to recycling, the problem of an over-supply of incinerators may become apparent in the near future. Our results indicate that the availability of capacity size may be an important factor when policy-makers consider whether to close down some existing incinerators.

A reassessment of the Global Food Security Index by using a hierarchical data envelopment analysis approach

Abstract This study proposes a hierarchical data envelopment analysis (H-DEA) approach to construct a multi-dimensional indicator, and applies it to reassess the 2014 Global Food Security Index created by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) across 110 countries. Instead of using expert opinions to assign weights, the proposed model endogenises the weights, and thus avoids the problems of subjective weighting for international comparisons. The results show that although the ranking is not significantly different from that of the EIU, the optimal scores and weights differ by income levels. Additionally, this work articulates the value of a well-founded performance evaluation method by leveraging experts’ opinions and data-driven techniques through constructing a best-practice frontier with observation-specific weights. It is suggested that food availability should be the top policy priority in low- to medium-income and Sub-Saharan African countries where food deficits are most prevalent. The findings can serve as guidance to improve the design of the ongoing efforts for global food security.

A value-added analysis of trade in Taiwan and Korea’s ICT industries

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to extricate value-added exports in information and communications technology (ICT) industry earned by Taiwan and Korea. Additionally, the authors decompose Taiwan and Korea’s gross exports into various meaningful components. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use the inter-country input-output (ICIO) table which endows with cost structures of industries as well as trade information, facilitating in keeping track of the flow of products and value-added. The ICIO table used in this paper comes from the World Input-Output Database. The authors also use the way Wang et al. (2013) decomposed the intermediate goods exports into various components to provide further insights. Findings – The empirical results indicate that Taiwan and Korea’s ICT export to the world shrink by 47.8 and 40.9 percent when the trades are measured in value-added terms. Taiwan and Korea’s ICT export will also decrease by 75.1 and 57.8 percent. From the viewpoint of value added in trade, the...

An economy-wide analysis of impacts on Taiwan of reducing tariff escalation on agriculture-related products in WTO Doha Round negotiations

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to assess the degree of tariff escalation in Taiwans agriculture-related commodities and the economy-wide impact of tariff harmonization. Design/methodology/approach - – A computable general equilibrium model of the Taiwan economy is applied to simulate for the economy-wide impact of three alternative proposals that reduce tariff rates as well as the degree of tariff escalation in agriculture-related products. Findings - – The paper shows that reduction in tariff wedge helps increase social welfare of Taiwan at the expense of some agricultural sectors. Based on the pair-wise comparisons of the three tariff reduction proposals, the scenario where the upstream products have the least reduction would have agricultural sectors fare better than in the other scenarios where more negative impact on output and employment would occur to agricultural sectors. Originality/value - – The paper assesses quantitatively the economy-wide impact of reducing tariff wedges between unprocessed and processed products, which is rarely seen in the literature using a detailed computable general equilibrium model.

The China syndrome? The impact of China's growth on wage inequality in East Asian economies

In this paper, the opening and rapid growth of China is examined for its effects on output, employment, GDP, social welfare, and wage inequality within major East Asian economies like Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Simulation results show a tendency toward rising relative real wages between skilled and unskilled workers. However, GDP and social welfare in major East Asian economies have tended to rise with China’s openness and growth. Outputs of almost all non-agricultural industries but the moderately human capital (unskilled labor)-intensive manufacturing groups have declined. It seems that income effects from China’s growth overpower factor substitution effects, so that a larger China has made all the other economies, and the agents within them, better off. On an elemental level, this stands to reason since China’s expansion confers on the rest of the world a large term of trade gain.