Ying Chu Ng

Measuring the Research Performance of Chinese Higher Education Institutions: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis

Utilizing data from 84 key Chinese higher education institutions, the present study attempts to examine the effectiveness of the Education Reform implemented in the mid-1980s in China. With focus on the research performance of the institutions, individual institution efficiency is computed by the method of data envelopment analysis. Regional differences in the efficiency of institutions are also addressed. It is found that research performance of institutions across regions has improved, although the institutions as a whole have remained inefficient from 1993 to 1995. Institutions located in the East region turn out to have out-performed those in the Central and the West regions. In addition, the decomposition of the group efficiency measure indicates that, for the 3 years under study, the 84 key institutions suffered from technical, allocative and reallocative inefficiency.

Training and enterprise performance in transition: evidence from China

The role of training and its impact on company performance is studied in different types of enterprises in a transitional economy. A sample of manufacturing enterprises is drawn, using China as a case study. The findings indicate that training is perceived to be relatively important in non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs). Training objectives have three major dimensions, namely enhancing working relationships, tackling skill deficiencies and skills development. SOEs tend to focus more on skill development, while non-SOEs emphasize both enhancing working relationships and skills improvement. Comparing the expectations of training and the perceived achievement of training objectives, the gap is seen to be small within all types of enterprises, and training effectiveness is perceived to be similar. The production function estimation shows that there is a positive relationship between training expenditures and enterprise productivity.

Incidence and wage effects of overschooling and underschooling in Hong Kong

Abstract Data from the 1986 Hong Kong By-census and the 1991 Hong Kong Census were used to study the following issues: (1) What is the incidence of adequate schooling, overschooling and underschooling in Hong Kong, and has it changed between 1986 and 1991? (2) What are the wage consequences of adequate schooling, overschooling and underschooling, and have they changed over time? Also, are the results influenced by potential labor-market experience? The empirical results are discussed in the context of recent changes in the structure of the Hong Kong economy and the labor market. [ JEL I21, J31]

Measuring the productive efficiency of a group of firms

While the conventional Farrell-Färe approach to efficiency measurement can identify the most inefficient firms, it fails to consider the efficiency of a group of firms thoroughly. This paper introduces efficiency measures that can be used to find the efficiency of a group of firms and pinpoint whether the group inefficiency is due to inefficiency inside or outside individual firms. Furthermore, a new way of finding the revenue maximum shadow price vector is introduced to compute the allocative efficiency of individual firms when price data are not available.

Earnings and Education in Latin America

This paper uses household survey data for 18 Latin American countries to assess earnings differentials by level of education and how these differentials have changed during the 1980s. Introduction of the cost of education allows the estimation of private and social rates of return to investment in education across several dimensions: by education level, gender, sector of employment, nature of the secondary school curriculum and over time. The results show that, in most countries, the premium associated with higher education has decreased during the 1980s and that investment in primary education exhibits the highest rate of return among the levels considered.

Overeducation and Undereducation and their Effect on Earnings: Evidence from Hong Kong, 1986–1996

The expansion of the higher education sector and the structural changes in the Hong Kong economy in the late 1980s raise the issue of the incidence of overeducation in the Hong Kong labor market. Using the 1991 Hong Kong Census, and the 1986 and 1996 Hong Kong By-census data, the present study finds that the incidence of overeducation in Hong Kong is only a temporary phenomenon. The rate of return to education increased, while the premium to overeducation decreased, between 1986 and 1996. It also finds that there is a tradeoff relation between education and experience.

A simultaneous equation model of spousal time allocation

Abstract Given the complexity of spousal arrangements regarding market work and housework that have emerged during the last decade, time allocation by an individual within a family unit can no longer be treated as independent; albeit joint spousal decision making has not been properly modeled in the time-allocation literature. Accordingly, we develop a theoretical model which explains optimal time allocation of a typical dual-earner household which accounts for both interindividual and interactivity simultaneity. The model is estimated using a full information maximum likelihood technique with data from the 1983 wave of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. While this study improves on prior work in the area of time allocation by taking interdependency and interactivity simultaneity into account, many of the findings are consistent with those of previous studies where allocation decisions have been assumed to be independent. Modeling spousal decisions jointly and correctly, however, should serve to narrow the gap between theory and actual time-allocation behavior.

Impact of computerization on firm performance: a case of Shanghai manufacturing enterprises

The impact of computer-related input on firm productivity is not well understood in the developing world, including China. The present study contributes to this area by analyzing data collected from a sample of Shanghai manufacturing enterprises. Adopting a Cobb–Douglas production function, we find a positive relationship between computer personnel and enterprise output. The efficiency of enterprises, however, was shown to be generally low according to data envelopment analysis. The level of computerization was shown to make a positive contribution to improving efficiency in non-state-owned enterprises in both heavy and light industries. This was also shown to be the case for state-owned enterprises in heavy industry.

The incidence of overschooling and underschooling and its effect on earnings in the United States and Hong Kong

Data from the Current Population Survey (for the U.S.) and from the 1986 Hong Kong By-census and the 1991 Hong Kong Census were used to study the following issues: (1) What is the incidence of adequate schooling, overschooling and underschooling in the two countries, and has it changed between 1986 and 1991? (2) What are the wage consequences of adequate schooling, overschooling and underschooling, and have they changed over time? Also, are the results influenced by labor market experience?

The effect of employment status on private health insurance coverage: 1977 and 1987

Analyzing cross-sectional data from the National Medical Expenditure Survey (NMES), we find that the predicted probability of private insurance coverage for low-income individuals as a group fell dramatically from 1977 to 1987. The results of a decompositional technique show that the relationship between full-time employment and private insurance has weakened over the period for low-income females, but has strengthened for males in this group. While it appears that low-income females benefit from part-time employment relative to their unemployed cohorts, no discernible difference is found in the likelihood of being covered by private insurance for part-time and unemployed males. Finally, evidence suggesting a weakening over time in the relationship between part-time employment and private insurance coverage is found among middle-income females and high-income males. From a policy perspective, passage of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 has taken an important first step in attempting to lower the number of uninsured, especially among full-time workers. Our findings, however, suggest that this legislation may be too limited in scope to effectively reach part-time workers presently uninsured.