臺灣地區農會信用部合併之成本節省效益分析

Estimating Potential Gains of Mergers Between Credit Departments of Farmer’s Associations in Taiwan

藉由合併來改善台灣地區農會信用部間之經營危機，一直是近年來政府與學界關注之重點議題。前人之研究不多，且偏重在規模效益衡量，僅黃介良與陳美菁（1999）亦考慮管理能力之改善效益。本文進一步地結合Berger and Humphrey（1991）厚效率邊界概念及Shaffer（1993）之事前合併模擬設計，來衡量農信部在同群組內及跨群組間之合併效益。這種分析架構不但易於衡量，同時亦能明確地將合併效益區分為規模經濟與效率改善兩部分。模擬實證結果顯示：無論同群組或跨群組之農信部合併均產生相當程度之規模經濟效益與成本節省，不過該合併總效益之高低仍需視合併之對象以及合併後之經營改善能力。最低成本群之農信部均為合併之最佳對象，所獲致之成本節省較大。此外，研究亦發現，在許多跨組合併上，規模擴大之合併效益亦可媲美因經營效率改善之效益，此亦顯示出農信部規模偏低之特性。綜言之，農會信用部間之體制內合併是一個正確且可行之方向，不過有關當局亦需慎選合併對象及鼓勵效率之提昇，而本文之事前評估方式與結果，亦可提供決策之重要參考。

Improving operational efficiency of credit department of farmer’sassociation (CDFA) by means of merger has been an important research andpolicy issue in Taiwan recently. Previous relevant research has been limitedand mostly addressed on the increase of economies of scale, only Huangand Chen (1999) has considered the benefit of mergers from efficiencyimprovement. In this paper, we adopted the thick frontier concept of Bergerand Humphrey (1991) and ex ante simulation method used by Shaffer (1993)for measuring potential cost saving from CDFA’s inter and intra groupsmergers. Such cost saving can be further decomposed into gains fromscale economy and from efficiency improvement. Our empirical resultsindicate benefit or cost saving of CDFA mergers to be substantial. However,the magnitude of such benefit will depend upon the choice of merger partnerand level of efficiency improvement after merging. Merging with CDFA inthe lowest cost group will always be a best choice and result in relative largecost saving. Results also show that gains form scale economies of CDFAmergers are comparable to those from efficiency improvement. It is thusplausible to suggest more CDFA mergers in Taiwan in the future. Our exante evaluation results of CDFA mergers can also provide useful information to policy makers.