Japan and the World Economy最新文献

This paper demonstrates that expenditure/income discrepancies appearing in national accounts are caused partly by the nominal distortion due to the presence of two price units, and partly by the real distortion due to the mismeasurement of expenditure items. In addition, it investigates how such statistical discrepancies reveal potentially important information about various informal, though not necessarily illegal, economic activities, which are not grasped fully by statistical or tax authorities in a central government. Three cases are explored in detail. First, after-consumption-tax prices are mixed with before-consumption-tax prices in aggregating expenditures. Second, black-market prices coexist with official prices in a heavily controlled economy. Third, prices are quoted in not only a conventional currency unit, but also a more valuable cryptocurrency unit; however, the latter unit is still evaluated one to one with the former. Unlike in macroeconomic disequilibrium models, statistical discrepancies are not ex ante concepts, but they actually occur ex post. This paper examines how ex post excess demand/supply within the formal economy, resulting from such discrepancies, is adjusted by monetary and nonmonetary interactions with the informal or underground economy.

This study explores the use of initial funding sources using a unique sample of various types of start-up firms in Japan obtained from multiple surveys. We provide evidence on the differences in the use of initial funding sources and their determinants across start-up firms by estimating a multivariate probit model. Our findings indicate that founders’ human capital, entrepreneurial commitment, growth orientation, innovativeness, physical capital, and the presence of predecessors or parent firms are important determinants of their choice of initial funding sources. Specifically, while start-up firms with growth orientation and those that engage in innovative activities are more likely to use subsidies and funds from private equity investors, those with physical capital are more likely to use bank borrowing.

What influence does career-relevant information have on occupational choices? This study analyzes changes in career preferences related to the provision of career-relevant information through a cluster-randomized controlled trial with students at a rural Japanese high school. We examined the potential effects of two types of information, including an information regarding impact of technological innovation on labor markets program (the “ICT-AI Impact on the Labor Market” program) and an information regarding how to deepen “self-understanding” (the “self-understanding” program). The results reveal that the ICT-AI Impact program did not induce statistically significant shifts in students’ occupational choices. By contrast, the self-understanding program shifted students’ occupational choices regarding professional occupations such as educational, medical, and legal professions. Our findings indicate that career-relevant information provision can be an effective policy tool in the labor market because the provision can support students’ occupational choices.

In open competitive tendering in Japan, one-party bid events where only one contractor submits a bid frequently occur. This situation has been criticized as hindering economic efficiency and fairness. This study uses bidding records to statistically analyze the factors that influence the number of bidders and cause one-party bids, which subsequently influence the win-reserve ratio. We found that fewer bidders participate in bidding for deals that require relationship-specific investments, resulting in a higher win-reserve ratio. In biddings with ambiguous specifications and incomplete contracts, more bidders participate, leading to a lower win-reserve ratio. Aside from these indirect effects mediated by the number of bidders, some factors directly influence the win-reserve ratio. Interestingly, indirect and direct effects conflict for follow-up deals and deal size. Thus, by highlighting deal-specific factors and differentiating between indirect and direct effects, this study brings new insights into the discussion on bidder behavior and its outcomes.

In this study, we examined the effect of the order of shortening business hours of the restaurants, which are considered a major source of spreading the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Specifically, we empirically investigated how this order changed the nighttime light (NTL) in regions with restaurants in the Greater Tokyo area from January to June 2020. Several local governments in Japan had implemented the order to combat COVID-19. Our investigation found evidence that the order significantly decreased the NTL in regions with many restaurants, indicating the effectiveness of the order and its negative economic/business impacts on restaurants. Interestingly, this order increased the NTL in other areas, such as in residential areas. In contrast to previous studies focused on demand-side factors, our study revealed the importance of supply-side factors in explaining the impact of Japanese government policy against COVID-19 in the first half of 2020.

This study is the first to exhaustively calculate the degree of concentration in regional banking markets using the outstanding amount of loans and deposits at branches and headquarters of financial institutions in Japan. Calculating the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) for loans and deposits for each prefecture and for each urban employment area for the period 2005–2019, we show differences in the HHI across regions and developments in these differences over time. Furthermore, we decompose the level of and changes in the HHI into two components: the contribution of the number of financial institutions and the contribution of the deviation of individual financial institutions’ market share from the mean. We also examine the extent of the increase in the HHI caused by mergers of financial institutions and its persistence. The main results obtained are as follows. First, while the HHIs for loans and deposits show an upward trend, the HHI for loans in large metropolitan areas, which was already low, continued to further decline, indicating that competition among financial institutions in large metropolitan regions, which already was severe, has continued to intensify. Second, increases in the HHI are not only due to reductions in the number of financial institutions but also to the growing variation in financial institutions’ market share. And third, while an increase in the loan HHI due to a merger of financial institutions is sustained for a certain period, the duration of such an increase tends to be shorter in regions with a low market concentration.

The article aims to show how keiretsu networks have functioned, evolved, and influenced the economy of Japan over the decades. The main research method used is an in-depth literature review, while a bibliometric analysis and the path-dependence framework support it in the selection of relevant material. The keiretsu predecessors were the zaibatsu – large family-controlled conglomerates that came into prominence during the Meiji Period. The two traditional types of keiretsu are horizontal (financial) networks and vertical (industrial) networks. The key elements of the keiretsu system are the main banks, sōgō shōsha, shachō-kai (for horizontal keiretsu), and kyōryoku-kai (for vertical keiretsu). Text network analysis reveals four main themes in the literature: “Japan and the global economy,” “financial institutions of Japan,” “the theory of the keiretsu,” and “the characteristics of the Japanese firms.” The keiretsu had a positive influence on the Japanese economy during the post-war period of high economic growth. As the economy of Japan slowed down in the 1990 s, the gains from keiretsu membership became less unequivocal – which prompted a wave of mergers and modernization.

During past shocks (e.g., the 2008–2009 global financial crisis), the services trade was found to be more resilient than the goods trade; however, the ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has restricted cross-border mobility, which is disastrous to the services trade because it often requires physical proximity between suppliers and consumers. We empirically examined the impact of COVID-19 on the services trade using quarterly data from 146 countries in 2019 and 2020. Its severity is measured according to the number of cases, the number of deaths, and an index measuring the severity of lockdown orders. We found that the pandemic had a more significantly negative impact on the services trade than the goods trade, particularly on the import side. Moreover, the extent of the impact varied among disaggregated services sectors, reflecting the nature of services. Travel services were the most severely affected, followed by transport and construction services, which are largely related to the international movement of people and goods. On the other hand, other services typically provided as cross-border supply, including computer services, experienced almost no significant effect.

We examine whether the price affects the contractor’s choice of quality using the ex-post quality evaluation data of public construction projects conducted by Ise City in Japan. Ise City employs a sealed-bid first-price auction with reserve and minimal prices in the selection of contractors. Upon completion of the project, Ise City evaluates the quality of the work using a 100-point scale score based on items such as administration, safety, time management, external appearance, and functionality. Our results show that the winning price in the auction does not affect the quality of the work. We discuss several reasons behind this finding.

We investigate how exchange rates affect the Japanese chemical industry. This industry exports sophisticated products to downstream firms. Since more complex products are less substitutable in international trade, we investigate whether they have lower price elasticities. We measure complexity using Hidalgo and Hausmann’s (2009) product complexity index. We find that price elasticities are lower for more complex chemical goods. We also find that stock returns of chemical firms that occupy vital niches in the world economy are harmed less by yen appreciations. These results indicate that exporting sophisticated products can reduce export volatility and profit volatility arising from exchange rate swings.