Research Monographs in Japan-U.S. Business and Economics – serie

Productivity of inputs is an important determinant of the competitiveness of firms in national and international markets. Productivity growth arises from deliberate decisions to innovate but the technological opportunities could be such that different inputs would have different rates of growth. Previous literature has mostly concentrated on labor productivity but empirical studies indicate that productivity of capital is also increasing. One of the objectives of this book is to examine the difference or bias in the productivity growth of the two inputs. In this book, application of this general approach to study of biased technical change is developed and new empirical results presented for both macroeconomies and microeconomic firms.

Economic Theory, Dynamics, and Markets. The collection of essays in honor of Ryuzo Sato, written by his colleagues and students, covers the many fields of economic theory and policy to which he has contributed. The first section pays tribute to his contributions to mathematical economics and economic theory. Ryuzo Sato is known for his work in growth theory and technical progress, and the second section has a number of papers on macroeconomics and dynamics. The third section has a number of papers on financial markets and their functioning in Japan and the United States. The next section examines various aspects of the economics of firms and industry. Ryuzo Sato has been very involved in analyzing the economic and business relations between Japan and the United States, and the last section is devoted to comparative analysis of economic systems.

This text offers the life-long reflections of a Japanese scholar who pioneered the application of general equilibrium theory to international trade. The book combines standard topics on international trade with a discussion of the evolution of the theory and some discussions on topics like immiserizing growth. This book is presented in two parts. Part I examines the historical progression of international trade theory. Part II addresses the modern theory and developments of international trade. This book offers a comprehensive evaluation of the non-monetary problems of international economics.

This work explores how symmetry and invariance of economic models can provide insights into their properties. While the professional economist is nowadays adept at many of the mathematical techniques used in static and dynamic optimization models, group theory is still not among his or her repertoire of tools. The authors aim to show that group theoretic methods form a natural extension of the techniques commonly used in economics and that they can be easily mastered.

Global Competition and Integration offers varied perspectives on the changing international economy. The book is divided into four main sections covering world trade and competition, innovation and growth, financial markets and globalization, and regulation, distribution, and the role of government.

Organization, Performance and Equity: Perspectives on the Japanese Economy provides an analysis of key components of the Japanese economy and business structures, edited by two leading American-based Japan scholars. The contributions to this book are grouped into four major categories: organizations; income distributions; technological progress; and macro performance. The first section examines the retail sector, the role of information in evaluating distribution systems, and ownership structures and their effect on welfare, all in the context of the Japanese economy. The second section concerns issues of Japanese tax structures, growth, and income transfers, while the third section focuses on technology and productivity. The concluding section addresses major macro issues like trade and the value of the yen.

The health-care sector has become a major component of the contemporary economies of Japan and the United States. It absorbs significant portions of the GDP in both countries, and places increasing stress on private, government, and corporate budgets. With so much at stake, arrangements for planning, financing, and operating health-care service systems have become increasingly important economic and political issues. This study takes a macroeconomic policy approach to analyzing a fundamental question of the health care debate: can the anticipated increasing rate of growth in future health care expenditures be financially absorbed by the society's increasing income and output? This monograph addresses not only if, but also how, health care financing could in the future be ethically, safely, and economically accomplished. It identifies the right questions which must be answered and the balance that must be sought among the dilemmas and paradoxes raised by the realities of financing health care services in the future.

Government Deficit And Fiscal Reform In Japan presents a theoretical-based comprehensive analysis of economic consequences of government deficits and fiscal reform in Japan. Particular emphasis is directed at developing tools that can be applied to theoretically and empirically clarify essential economic concerns in Japan such as generational incidence of fiscal reform and a growing dependence on government bonds for covering financial deficits. This book evaluates the recent movement of Japanese fiscal reform and government deficit.The authors first summarize fiscal policy in 1990's. Then, they move on to investigate the macroeconomic impact of government dept and the sustainability problem, and then discuss benefits and costs of public investment. The political aspect of fiscal reconstruction movements in Japan is also examined. Finally, the authors investigate the behavior of central government's control on local governments' debt issuance and its effect on the real activities of local governments. This book points out that the long-run structural fiscal reform is more important than the short-run Keynesian fiscal policy in Japan.

This title attempts to make an empirical contribution to the literature on the movements of stock prices in major economies, that is, Germany, Japan, the UK and the USA. Specifically, the cross-correlation function (CCF) approach is used to analyze the stock market. This volume provides some empirical evidence regarding the economic linkages among a group of different countries. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 analyse the international linkage of stock prices among Germany, Japan, the UK and the USA. Chapter 2 applies the standard approach, whereas Chapter 3 uses the CCF approach. Chapter 4 analyses the relationship between stock prices and exchange rates. Chapter 5 analyses the relationship among stock prices, exchange rates, and real economic activities. Chapter 6 summarises the main results obtained in each chapter and comments on the possible directions of future research.

Productivity of inputs is an important determinant of the competitiveness of firms in national and international markets. Productivity growth arises from deliberate decisions to innovate but the technological opportunities could be such that different inputs would have different rates of growth. Previous literature has mostly concentrated on labor productivity but empirical studies indicate that productivity of capital is also increasing. One of the objectives of this book is to examine the difference or bias in the productivity growth of the two inputs. In this book, application of this general approach to study of biased technical change is developed and new empirical results presented for both macroeconomies and microeconomic firms.

Developments of International Trade Theory offers the life-long reflections of a distinguished Japanese scholar who pioneered the application of general equilibrium theory to international trade. Written in a style that makes it easily accessible to scholars and students, the book combines standard topics on international trade with a discussion of the evolution of the theory and some recent discussions on topics like immiserizing growth. This book is presented in two parts. Part I examines the historical progression of international trade theory. Part II addresses the modern theory and recent developments of international trade. This book offers a comprehensive evaluation of the non-monetary problems of international economics.

Government Deficit And Fiscal Reform In Japan presents a theoretical-based comprehensive analysis of economic consequences of government deficits and fiscal reform in Japan. Particular emphasis is directed at developing tools that can be applied to theoretically and empirically clarify essential economic concerns in Japan such as generational incidence of fiscal reform and a growing dependence on government bonds for covering financial deficits. This book evaluates the recent movement of Japanese fiscal reform and government deficit.The authors first summarize fiscal policy in 1990's. Then, they move on to investigate the macroeconomic impact of government dept and the sustainability problem, and then discuss benefits and costs of public investment. The political aspect of fiscal reconstruction movements in Japan is also examined. Finally, the authors investigate the behavior of central government's control on local governments' debt issuance and its effect on the real activities of local governments. This book points out that the long-run structural fiscal reform is more important than the short-run Keynesian fiscal policy in Japan.

An Empirical Investigation of Stock Markets: The CCF Approach attempts to make an empirical contribution to the literature on the movements of stock prices in major economies, i.e. Germany, Japan, the UK and the USA. Specifically, the cross-correlation function (CCF) approach is used to analyze the stock market. This volume provides some empirical evidence regarding the economic linkages among a group of different countries.Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 analyze the international linkage of stock prices among Germany, Japan, the UK and the USA. Chapter 2 applies the standard approach, whereas Chapter 3 uses the CCF approach. Chapter 4 analyzes the relationship between stock prices and exchange rates. Chapter 5 analyzes the relationship among stock prices, exchange rates, and real economic activities. Chapter 6 summarizes the main results obtained in each chapter and comments on the possible directions of future research.

Economic Theory, Dynamics, and Markets. The collection of essays in honor of Ryuzo Sato, written by his colleagues and students, covers the many fields of economic theory and policy to which he has contributed. The first section pays tribute to his contributions to mathematical economics and economic theory. Ryuzo Sato is known for his work in growth theory and technical progress, and the second section has a number of papers on macroeconomics and dynamics. The third section has a number of papers on financial markets and their functioning in Japan and the United States. The next section examines various aspects of the economics of firms and industry. Ryuzo Sato has been very involved in analyzing the economic and business relations between Japan and the United States, and the last section is devoted to comparative analysis of economic systems.

Global Competition and Integration offers varied perspectives on the changing international economy. The book is divided into four main sections covering world trade and competition, innovation and growth, financial markets and globalization, and regulation, distribution, and the role of government.

Symmetry and Economic Invariance: An Introduction explores how symmetry and invariance of economic models can provide insights into their properties.

The health care sector has become a major component of the contemporary econo­ mies of Japan and the United States. It absorbs significant proportions of the GDP in both countries and places increasing stress on private, government and corporate budgets. As their income rises, the citizens ofJapan and the United States choose to allocate increasing portions of it on health care services because ofthe direct contri­ bution of health care services to prolonged life expectancy, reduced morbidity, or other indicators of improved health and well-being. The health care sector is a ma­ jor source ofemployment and affects the lives of all citizens. Adequate health care services are expected to have an important contribution to the quality of human life in any society. With so much at stake, arrangements for planning, financing, and operating health care service systems have increasingly come to be regarded as im­ portant economic and political issues. The political importance of health care is evidenced by the health care reform proposals of the Clinton administration in the United States and the deep involve­ ment of the government in the medical care security system in Japan. As policy­ makers in both countries look ahead to the coming decades, they realize that the imperatives of economic restructuring, globalization, and their rapidly aging socie­ ties will affect the way in which health care is organized, delivered, and financed.