Efficiency and Returns to Scale Measurements with Shared Inputs in Multi-Activity Data Envelopment Analysis: An Application to Farmers' Organizations in Taiwan

This paper addresses the question how team production promotes efficiency of a firm when some inputs can be rewarded on the basis of outputs but some cannot because they are shared among outputs and non-separable. A multi-activity DEA model with variable returns to scale is proposed to provide information on the efficiency performance for organizations with inputs shared among several closely related activities. The model is applied to study the case of 279 farmers' associations in Taiwan. The result suggests that it is important to improve the efficiency of the non-profit oriented activities to improve their overall performances. Three out of four departments of TFAs can gain from economies of scale through expansion, while the remaining one gains through contraction. Thus, policies promoting structural adjustment and consolidations of TFAs would not be inconsistent with public interests.multi-activity DEA, shared inputs, efficiency measure, directional distance function, Productivity Analysis,

Antidumping Petition: To File or Not To File

Given the “normal value†of a product as common knowledge in an import-competing market, the profitability of a home firm in filing an antidumping (AD) petition against its foreign rival is shown to depend on the marginal cost differential between the home and foreign firms. When the marginal cost differential is “significantly large,†the home firm's ability to put the foreign firm at the risk of an AD violation is limited. But when the marginal cost differential is “significantly small,†the home firm is able to increase its output and lower the price of the product below its normal value, putting the foreign firm in the situation of an illegal dumping. One interesting implication is that, relative to the case without an AD law, the home firm has a stronger incentive to undertake cost-reducing activities (e.g., R&D investment or the adoption of a more efficient technology) under the law.antidumping laws, antidumping duties, dumping margins

An Economy-wide Analysis of Impacts of WTO Tiered Formula for Tariff Reduction on Taiwan

In this study we use Taiwan as a case study to provide an economy-wide analysis of impacts on Taiwan of WTO tariff reduction schemes with different combinations of thresholds and reduction rates. The model we utilized in this study is Taiwan General Equilibrium Model with a WTO module (TAIGEM-WTO, hereafter) that is a multi-sectoral computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Taiwan's economy derived from Australian ORANI model (Dixon, Parmenter, Sutton and Vincent, 1982). Simulation results show that results are more sensitive to the scheme of tariff-reduction (i.e., Category 1, 2, and 3) than the tiered levels (i.e., A, B, C, and D) and as a strategy we should pay more attention to the arguments related to the amounts of tariff-reduction. Moreover, changes in nominal average tariff rates are more sensitive and shocks to the economy are more severe when we change the tariff reduction categories rather than the tiered levels. This conclusion also applies to the tiered reduction case when only sensitive products are considered. Finally, simulations with sector's bound rate calculated using arithmetic means have bigger effects than those using import values as weights. Therefore, sector's bound rate using import values as weights would be preferred.Computable General Equilibrium (CGE), Tiered Formula, WTO, International Relations/Trade,

Deformation of Coarse Materials Associated with Cyclic Loadings

A series of static and cyclic triaxial tests was carried out on compacted greywacke sandstone containing small amount of fines. Permanent strain of saturated or air-dried sample induced by cyclic loading was measured for different cyclic loading sequences, initial shear stress, and fine content. The shear deformation and strength of those samples were also investigated by monotonic loading on virgin and post-cyclic loading samples