How Autonomous are Public Corporations in Hong Kong? The Case of the Airport Authority

This article examines the degree of autonomy of Hong Kong’s Airport Authority (AA). Traditionally, airport management in Hong Kong was the responsibility of the government’s Civil Aviation Department. The AA was established in 1995 to manage the new international airport at Chek Lap Kok which opened in 1998. It was expected to run as a commercial enterprise but, because of its strategic importance, there was concern that it should not become an independent empire detached from government control. As a hybrid type of organization, the AA has moved steadily towards full commercialization. The government has also put its privatization on the agenda. Its transformation may have some implications for the redefinition of the future autonomy boundaries of public corporations in Hong Kong.

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The Government and Statutory Bodies in Hong Kong: Centralization and Autonomy

Over the past decade in Hong Kong, the relationship and accountability of statutory bodies to core government, to the legislature, and to the broader public have been the subject of continuing and, as yet, unresolved debate. Faced with scandals and other serious problems in a number of the major statutory bodies, and in the context of its own problems of lack of political support and legitimacy, the Tung administration tended to reduce the autonomy of the statutory bodies by increasing central control and integrating their functions with those of core government. Legislators have seen the problems of statutory bodies from a rather different perspective, arguing that they result from a lack of accountability and transparency. The government’s eventual concession to the need for reform has resulted, since 2003, in a review of the principles governing the work of all advisory and statutory bodies and of specific statutory bodies which have experienced serious problems. This article examines the principles contained in the review and assesses whether they are likely to lead to increased autonomy and improvements in governance standards.     

One Government,Multiple Systems: Hong Kong Public Administration in Transition

This study addresses the impact of a transformative political event—the reversion of sovereign authority—on the policy-making roles of public organizations and public administrators in Hong Kong. With the transfer of sovereignty, the environment of public administration in Hong Kong became increasingly politicized. Civil servants now encounter pressures and conflicting demands from Beijing, from pro-democracy forces, from the Chief Executive, from members of the Legislative Council, and from the business community. Although the public bureaucracy retains its policy-making preeminence, its authority no longer is unquestioned and unchecked. The Central Government exerts hidden influence. Members of the Legislative Council are striving to become respected players in the policy-formulation process. The Chief Executive aims to introduce means of ensuring heightened bureaucratic responsiveness. The result has been a fragmented and volatile political-administrative environment. In the ongoing transition from colonial to reunited polity, the Special Administrative Region's one government is composed of competing systems of governance superimposed uncomfortably and inconclusively upon one another. The most probable governance outcome, at least until the possible popular election of a Chief Executive and Legislative Council on a competitive political-party basis in 2007, is for fragmentation, role conflict, and interest-accommodation to continue to characterize the policy-making process in the SAR.     

基于滚窗VAR的沪港通波动溢出效应测度

股市间的互联互通是把“双刃剑”,在加强联动性的同时也扩大了风险敞口。作为中国股市对外开放的重大举措,沪港通开通六年来的效果如何是业界关注的议题。本文运用滚窗VAR方法计算沪港通前后各1000个交易日期间上海、香港和纽约股市的时变波动溢出指数,进而分析两两市场之间波动溢出效应的大小、传导方向变化。研究发现,沪港通的实施,增大了沪市与香港股市的波动溢出效应,与美国的波动溢出效应相对减小,沪港通在加强沪、港两市联动性的同时弱化了与纽约股市的联动性;改变了沪港两市之间波动溢出效应的传导方向,由单一的港→沪溢出变为以沪市为主的双向沪←→港溢出,同时也增大了对纽约股市的溢出效应,增强了沪市的竞争力。这一结果符合经济基础假说和协同市场假说。本文的研究改进了股市间互联互通波动溢出效应程度和传导方向的测度方法,并为中国沪港通政策效果评价及进一步的国际板开设提供决策参考依据。     

Statutory Bodies and Performance Reporting: Hong Kong and Singapore Experience

Performance reporting involving performance indicators has been adopted by statutory bodies in Hong Kong and Singapore as a means of improving their accountability. This development has considerable promise, but how has it affected the autonomy of statutory bodies and has it benefited other stakeholders? On the bases of a questionnaire survey and a content analysis of relevant websites, this article finds that any increased operational autonomy enjoyed by statutory bodies as a result of performance reporting arrangements has had only a negligible impact on the participation of citizens in the affairs of those bodies and on their accountability to citizens.     

Toward an Effective Design of Behavioral Health Care Delivery: An Empirical Analysis of Care for Depression

A criticism of behavioral health care delivery is that it has largely missed the social determinants of behavioral health disorders and their diagnosis. Toward addressing this criticism, this study evaluates the delivery of behavioral health care as a part of primary care operations. Focusing on the treatment of depression, the study results show that: (i) primary care clinics operating in communities with superior social environment characteristics are associated with improved depression outcomes in the short term, and (ii) psychosocial resources (social and emotional support) and the built environment (man‐made resources and infrastructure to support human activity) of primary care clinics are associated with sustaining the improvement in depression outcome in the long term. Centering our attention on IT‐enabled, evidence‐based, and affordable primary care as mechanisms that can enable the integration of behavioral and medical care delivery, the results suggest that IT‐enabled and evidence‐based primary care are associated with improvements in depression outcomes. We also find that the effect of improving the affordability of behavioral health care delivery depends on the community's socioeconomic status. Primary care clinics in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities practicing cost‐containment are associated with improvements in depression outcomes, and, therefore, can contribute toward reducing disparities in behavioral health care delivery. Counter to our original expectations, we find that the effect of evidence‐based care on improvements on depression outcomes increases as the availability of medically trained behavioral health care specialists practicing in a community increases lending support to concerns that primary care clinics in resource‐rich communities obtain greater benefit from quality improvement interventions.     

来自新兴市场的公司上市对目的地市场的影响——以中国香港市场为例

选取1993-2017年数据,以H股在香港证券市场上市为研究对象,运用DCC-MVGARCH模型、线性回归模型和事件研究法等多种组合方法,考察来自新兴市场的公司上市对目的地市场发展和目的地既有上市公司影响。结果表明：第一,H股在港上市扩大了香港市场的市场规模和交易活动,吸引了更多的国际资本流入;第二,H股在港上市提升了H股与香港市场既有股票的收益相关性,以及香港市场与大陆市场及全球市场的联动性;第三,H股在港上市对既有股票的估值影响是积极的。总之,来源于新兴市场的公司上市对目的地市场和既有上市公司的综合影响是积极的,溢出效应大于"质量传染"效应和分流效应,促进了目的地市场质量提升和市场发展。本文结论有助于丰富跨境上市对目的地市场影响的研究,对于基于"一带一路"新兴市场国家开放资本市场战略构建国际金融中心的我国具有重要的启示意义。     

Organizations in the Public Sector in Hong Kong: Core Government, Quasi-Government and Private Bodies with Public Functions

Twenty-five years ago, the Hong Kong government was lauded as the model of a small, restricted government which was most suited to capitalist economic growth. Since that time, the government and the organizations which it has created have expanded to such an extent that there has been widespread concern that the public sector has grown too large. This article examines the reasons for the rapid growth in the size of the public sector, reflects on the organizational forms outside the traditional civil service that have been adopted, and analyzes the attempts that have been made to reduce the public bureaucracy by corporatizing and privatizing some of the services that it provides. Central to the argument presented is the question of whether an ideological commitment to small government or other functional and political factors have been the critical determinants of organizational change.     

Integration and Autonomy in Organizational Governance: A Comparative Study of Two Government-Owned Railways in Hong Kong

This article identifies the patterns of integration and autonomy in organizational governance in two government-owned railways in Hong Kong in relation to relevant external and internal actors from the government, market and civil society. The Kowloon Canton Railway Corporation, a government department turned into a statutory corporation, and the Mass Transit Railway Corporation Limited, a statutory corporation turned into a listed company, are both profitable enterprises. They have been subjected to similar macro-governance influences (mainly political and policy changes), but their patterns of integration and autonomy with relevant actors in organizational governance are not the same. The historical variations in the integration-autonomy patterns, notably an increased tendency for government intervention, as well as major differences between the two railways in their relationships with market and civil society actors, can often be explained by three interrelated factors, namely, political conditions, community expectations and performance.

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Bridging the Gap - Contractor and Bureaucrat Conceptions of Contract Management in Outsourcing

Perceptions of bureaucrats and contractors and their contractual relationship underpin contracting success. They are important phenomena but have not been fully explored in the current contracting literature, particularly in a highly politicalized context, namely Hong Kong. Using the principal-agent theory and the transaction cost theory as the theoretical framework, this study examines the perceptions of the key stakeholders, conceptualizes five attributes of effective contract management, and offers recommendations on bridging their perceptions for success of contract administration in Hong Kong. The study helps readers comprehend the dynamics of contract management, and its implications of Hong Kong’s politicalized background.     

Clinic Overbooking to Improve Patient Access and Increase Provider Productivity*

The problem of patient no‐shows (patients who do not arrive for scheduled appointments) is significant in many health care settings, where no‐show rates can vary widely. No‐shows reduce provider productivity and clinic efficiency, increase health care costs, and limit the ability of a clinic to serve its client population by reducing its effective capacity. In this article, we examine the problem of no‐shows and propose appointment overbooking as one means of reducing the negative impact of no‐shows. We find that patient access and provider productivity are significantly improved with overbooking, but that overbooking causes increases in both patient wait times and provider overtime. We develop a new clinic utility function to capture the trade‐offs between these benefits and costs, and we show that the relative values that a clinic assigns to serving additional patients, minimizing patient waiting times, and minimizing clinic overtime will determine whether overbooking is warranted. From the results of a series of simulation experiments, we determine that overbooking provides greater utility when clinics serve larger numbers of patients, no‐show rates are higher, and service variability is lower. Even with highly variable service times, many clinics will achieve positive net results with overbooking. Our analysis provides valuable guidance to clinic administrators about the use of appointment overbooking to improve patient access, provider productivity, and overall clinic performance.     

An Integrated Decision Methodology for Designing and Operating an Air‐Express Courier's Distribution Network*

DHL, an international air‐express courier, has been operating in Hong Kong for many years. In 1998, the new international airport located at a site considerably distant from the old location opened in Hong Kong (HK). Other airport‐related infrastructure facilities have also been developed or are being developed, resulting in major changes in transport structure as well as a shift in customer demand. In this paper a multiyear distribution network is designed for DHL(HK) using an integrated network design methodology, which consists of a macro model and a micro model. The macro model, a mixed 0–1 LP, determines in an aggregate manner the least‐cost distribution network. The micro model, a simulation, evaluates the operational viability and efficacy of the network according to its service coverage and service reliability. We also illustrate how coverage and reliability can be improved via the integrated use of the two models. Extensive discussion on relevant planning and operational issues of an air‐express courier are included. The methodology has been successfully implemented at DHL(HK). It has been used to design the network, to test strategic decisions, and to update the network.     

沪、深股票市场与香港股票市场的溢出效应——基于发布“港股直通车”方案前后的比较分析

本文以沪、深、港三地股票市场的数据为样本,用VAR模型和二元GARCH模型重点研究"港股直通车"事件是否对港市与沪、深股市的收益率及波动溢出关系有显著影响.研究结果表明,"港股直通车"公布之前,港市与沪、深股市间不存在任何方向的收益率溢出效应,但存在单向波动溢出效应;"港股直通车"公布之后.港市与沪、深股市间不仅存在单向收益率溢出效应,港市与沪市间还存在双向波动溢出效应,与深市间则存在单向波动溢出效应.     

Managing Integrity: The Regulation of Post Public Employment in Britain and Hong Kong

In this article, we examine the regulatory mechanisms governing post public employment in Britain and Hong Kong in the context of changing views on how integrity should be managed in their civil services. In both places, new public management practices have increased the possibility of ‘soft’ conflicts of interest which in turn has resulted in debates over the necessary degree of regulation, the organizational form that this should take, and the extent to which ethical concerns should be more focused on the communication and inculcation of core values in civil servants. We argue that the difficulty of regulating ‘soft’ conflicts of interests is driving moves toward the greater centralisation of ethical regulation in both Britain and Hong Kong and that there appears to be a return to more traditional ways of managing integrity.

Sustainability as the lynch pin of public policy and industry initiatives

Does managed care have a sustainable future? So far, managed care has not lived up to its promises and potential. Admittedly, the health care system prior to managed care was a non-system. But its features included committed health care professionals, caring local institutions, freedom of choice, and laws reflecting public confidence. And it was based on the assumption that needed health care services are a customary, moral, and implied legal right of U.S. citizens. In contrast, today's version of managed care is characterized by financial and legal manipulation, "choice" constricted by provider selection of physician panels, and laws reflecting lack of public trust. Managed care can survive its initial foolish years, if it heeds the voices of those urging that two priorities be reflected in public policy, legislative efforts, and business practices. One of these priorities is accountability for today's actions. The other is preserving this country's health care resources. This article explored the concept of sustainability--the need to strike a balance between seeking immediate profit and preserving available resources.     

Asian Corporates: Willing Participants in the Reporting Revolution?

Asia represents one of the most diverse regions of the world in terms of culture, politics and economies. Not surprisingly, there is a comparative variety in who is publicly reporting, where and why. As might be expected, those countries with stronger, more mature economies are the regional leaders, notably Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong. Japan is far ahead in terms of numbers of companies reporting and also has two award schemes in place to reward best practice and innovation. Both South Korea and Hong Kong are increasingly reporting, but with limited sophistication and an emphasis on environmental issues.With the development of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), participating Asian companies are able to access a global network of reporting organisations and substantial collective experience. A number of Japanese companies have already cited using the GRI framework in preparing their reports, whilst five Asian companies are involved in the current GRI feedback process, including one in Singapore and one in Thailand.The region's reporting pioneers are being driven by globalisation and international peer pressure. Moreover, whilst Asian companies have been notorious for limited corporate governance and transparency in their financial affairs, business models are changing and this evolution is likely to promote better disclosure not only of fiscal performance but also on environmental, health, safety and social issues.     

香港银行业开办人民币业务的风险评估

香港市场上人民币流通的规模变化,对于人民币业务开办的风险评估结论具有明显的影响。在渐进式的离岸业务推进模式下,当前可能会在特定的业务领域形成监管的模糊地带,但是总体上不会形成明显的风险隐患。通常而言离岸业务对于信息披露的要求较低,因而应当加强内地与香港的反洗钱合作。从当前的市场环境判断,当前香港市场上不会出现大规模的人民币对港币的替代。香港离岸的个人人民币业务的开展会对在岸的人民币业务形成一定的竞争,这种竞争压力随着香港离岸市场业务范围的扩大而继续增大。随着香港人民币离岸市场规模的不断扩大和业务范围的拓展,离岸人民币市场对于内地金融管制的冲击力会提高。从长期来看,随着人民币在香港流通规模的扩大,应及早研究人民币流通扩大背景下香港的金融体系改革战略问题。     

The consumer and provider: pillars of the new health care system

Managed care has suffered a public backlash, with complaints increasing across the nation from unhappy patients. The physician community despises the current system and is wrestling for control of clinical decision-making. A health care system that is disliked by the public and is despised by the physician community can never succeed. No health care system or reform is possible without willing or even enthusiastic physician participation because only they can control costs, quality of care, and consumer satisfaction. A successful health care system recognizes that only providers can control quality of care and costs--and will create appropriate incentives that allow physicians to do so without losing the public's trust. The author advocates a new system, where consumers choose provider organizations based on disease expertise and purchase insurance through Internet accessible brokers. Provider organizations assume economic risk and have the detailed know-how to treat a specific disease spectrum better and cheaper. Consumers purchase this new "product" in a competitive market and are the principal benefactors of this market-driven, unmanaged care system.     

The WHO/WTO Study on Trade and Public Health: A Critical Assessment

This article provides a brief critical examination of a 2002 report jointly issued by the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization on WTO law and public health. The author argues that the report is in many respects misleading as to the content of WTO law, as interpreted by the Appellate Body of the WTO, its final court. In particular, the WHO/WTO report systematically understates or underestimates the margins of regulatory autonomy that WTO member states have to make regulations that protect public health.     

Serf or citizen: physician status and organizational structure

For more than a decade, dynamic changes in the health care industry have created new organizations for physicians. The major change for physicians has not been the organization itself, but the principles by which it is governed. This fundamental shift is studied with its impact on physicians, by analogy, becoming more like serfs or more like citizens. A review of the general organizational direction and results of non-physician health care organizations is made followed by the statistical trends of physician groups. Historical comparisons of non-health care industries are made with current organizational choices of physicians and physician groups. Observations of physician decisions are made identifying the direction they send physician status along the continuum from serf to citizen. Physicians are unknowingly making decisions regarding the principles by which they will be governed in new organizations. The choices they are making give them less autonomy and less opportunity to make future choices. The seductive invitation to spend less time in administrative matters and more time practicing medicine is a siren's call that will diminish the status of physicians and the autonomy by which medicine is practiced.