The Changing Nature of Japanese Production Systems in the 1990s and Issues for Labour Studies

The authors discuss the changing character of production strategies and organizational arrangements at three leading Japanese automotive assemblers against a background of concern with the impact of work regimes upon employees. Innovations in production line organization are compared within and between the companies, and the argument advanced suggests that the attempt to ‘humanize’ work routines and procedures, by the leading company especially, has met with mixed results. Sornetimcs more ‘efficient’ technologies and forms of organization have been inhibited in the pursuit of ‘human-centred’ forms of work organization. Nevertheless, the article points up the considerable variations which exist both between and within Japanese companies and trade unions with respect to the understanding of the role played by labour.     

Optimal inflation target under uncertainty

We derive an optimal state-contingent inflation target in an economy under uncertainty. This inflation target can improve inefficiencies stemming from two sources: the lack of commitment to predetermined policies and the lack of coordination between the monetary and fiscal authorities. We then discuss the pros and cons of our proposal compared with the solution proposed by Beetsma and Bovenberg [Beetsma, R.M.W.J., Bovenberg, A.L., 2001. When does an inflation target yield the second best? Scandinavian Journal of Economics 103, 119–126], paying special attention to their practical feasibility. We will show that in some countries where there is a highly independent central bank, our proposal is more attractive.     

Parallel Consultant-Guided Search with Crossover

Consultant-guided search (CGS) is a recent metaheuristic method. This approach is an algorithm in which a virtual person called a client creates a solution based on consultation with a virtual person called a consultant. In this study, we propose a parallel CGS algorithm with a genetic algorithm’s crossover and selection, and calculate an approximation solution for the traveling salesman problem. We execute a computer experiment using the benchmark problems (TSPLIB). Our algorithm provides a solution with less than 3.3% error rate for problem instances using less than 6000 cities.     

Technical and scale efficiency of Japanese commerical banks: a non-parametric approach

Not only are the nature and extent and scale efficiency of Japanese commerical banks studied but a relationship between both organizational status and size efficiency is also announced. The efficiency measures are computed from a 1990 sample of cross-sectional data. For the estimation, we employ the non-parametric approach which has recently been gaining popularity for the studies of banking efficiency outside Japan.     

The Performance of Development Banks: The Case of the Reconstruction Finance Bank

This paper analyzes the performance of the Reconstruction Finance Bank (RFB) in order to shed light on the role of development banks in fostering economic growth. The RFB played a large role in Japan′s transition from war-time command economy to a market economy in the early post-war period. We use individual firm level data on sales, profits, and loans from the RFB, and find that, initially, the RFB was making loans to firms with below-average performance. We then find that this was partly a result of political interventions into the loan policy of the RFB. In fact, we also find evidence of improvements in the performance of the RFB after its loan policy became more independent. Implications for developing economies are also discussed. J. Japan. Int. Econ., Dec. 1995, 9(4), pp. 486-504. Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 13, Japan.     

Endogenous timing in the switching of technology with Marshallian externalities

We analyze endogenous timing in the switching of technology. Each user chooses when to purchase a new product which embodies new technologies characterized by Marshallian externalities. The technological switch occurs when a large number of users purchase new products. Under complete information, multiple market equilibria exist, and one of the equilibria in which technological switching occurs is efficient. However, if we introduce even a small amount of uncertainty, the switch is delayed in the unique equilibrium under perfect competition, resulting in a loss of social welfare. The market power of a monopolistic supplier of new products alleviates this inefficiency.     

The quality effect: Does financial liberalization improve the allocation of capital?

We document evidence of a “quality effect” of financial liberalization on allocative efficiency, as measured by dispersion in Tobin's Q across firms. We predict that financial liberalization, by equalizing access to credit, is associated with reduced variation in expected marginal returns. We test this prediction using a new financial liberalization index and firm-level data for five emerging markets: India, Jordan, Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand. We find robust evidence that financial liberalization, rather than financial deepening, is associated with improved allocative efficiency.     

NATURAL DISASTERS,DAMAGE TO BANKS,AND FIRM INVESTMENT

This article investigates the effect of banks’ lending capacity on firms’ investment. To identify exogenous shocks to loan supply, we utilize the natural experiment provided by Japan's Great Hanshin‐Awaji earthquake in 1995. Using a unique data set that allows us to identify firms and banks in the earthquake‐affected areas, we find that the investment ratio of firms located outside the earthquake‐affected areas but having a main bank inside the areas was significantly smaller than that of firms located outside the areas and having a main bank outside the areas. Our findings suggest that loan supply shocks affect firm investment.     

A directional slacks-based measure of technical inefficiency

Radial measures of efficiency estimated using linear programming (LP) methods can be biased since slack in the constraints defining the technology suggests that at least one input can be reduced, or one output can be expanded, even though a firm is deemed to be “technically efficient.” In this paper, we propose a directional slacks-based measure of technical inefficiency to account for the potential of slack in technological constraints. When no such slacks exist, directional slacks-based inefficiency collapses to the directional technology distance function. Our proposed measure helps to generalize some of the existing slacks-based measures of inefficiency. We examine the financial services provided by Japanese cooperative Shinkin banks, and estimate their inefficiency during the period 2002–2005. This inefficiency declined slightly during the period. We thus propose that slack is an important source of inefficiency which is often not captured by the directional technology distance function.