Consumption,income, and wealth inequality in Canada

In this paper, we document some features of the distribution of income, consumption and wealth in Canada using survey data from many different sources. We find that wage and income inequality have increased substantially over the last 30 years, but that much of this rise was offset by the tax and transfer system. As a result, the rise in consumption inequality has been relatively mild. We also document that wealth inequality has remained fairly stable since 1999. Using both confidential data and publicly available data, we are able to gauge the extent to which the publicly available data conceals aspects of inequality that confidential data reveals.     

How Do Ordinary Japanese Reach Consensus in Group Decision Making?: Identifying and Analyzing “Naïve Negotiation”

The purpose of this study is to investigate ways in which ordinary Japanese people negotiate in a multi-party meeting. We initially gave such a way of negotiation the tentative name of “naïve negotiation”. The analysis of the conversational data reveals three structural features of naïve negotiation: (1) at the utterance level, the participants tend to claim their opinions without providing any overt grounds, (2) at the local consensus-building level, they tend to jump to conclusions without the full examination of proposed hypotheses, (3) at the final consensus-making level, there tends to be disjunctions between discussion units. Although these features are not necessarily seen as irrational or illogical, a naïve-negotiation style can still be a trouble-source in achieving successful consensus-making. This leads us to emphasize the necessity of developing a support system for the discussants.     

Knowledge capital and the private rate of return to R&D in Japanese manufacturing industries

This paper examines the relationship between R&D investment and the rate of increase of labor productivity in Japanese manufacturing industries, and derives the rate of return to such investment through a Cobb-Douglas production function which explicitly includes knowledge capital stock. It is argued that the rate of return to R&D investment has been much higher than those of alternative investments but has declined in recent years as the dependence on imported technologies has been diminishing after the last half of the 1970's.     

Accountics: Impacts of internationally standardized accounting on the Japanese socio-economy

This is a case study of the dissemination of internationally standardized accounting to a nation where standardized accounting was hitherto only loosely practised under domestic conditions. Soon after World War II, a growing interest in socio-economic management, rather than microeconomic or corporate financing, accelerated the implementation of standardized accounting in Japan. In order to make unintelligible delineations of the economy and its constituent firms comprehensible, official and governable, both national and corporate accounting came to occupy an important position as a formal mode of economic data and management. The actors were the officials of the Allied Powers, economic statisticians and academic accountants; whose motives, political manoeuvres and consequences are here reconstructed based on the primary archives of, and interviews with, those who were directly involved in this revolution. The revolution directed new courses of the Japanese economy and firms through the development of “statistical habits of thought”. In order to clarify the relevance of this history to today’s international accounting issues, a few comparative references are also made to the recent development and implementation process of International Accounting Standards and International Financial Reporting Standards (IAS/IFRS).     

The deterioration of the terms of trade by a tariff

The paper investigates the classic problem of the effect of a tariff on the terms of trade for a country with monopoly power in trade. It shows that the terms of trade may deteriorate in the presence of a tariff, by using a three-traded-goods model as against the earlier analyses in terms of the two-good model. An earlier analysis by Gruen-Corden of such a model used unnecessarily restrictive assumptions to discuss this problem; the present model is perfectly general.     

The Strategy and structure of top 100 Japanese industrial enterprises 1950–1970

This paper examines the strategic and structural development of the 100 largest Japanese manufacturing enterprises between 1950 and 1970. Unlike other studies of Japanese business the author focuses not only on some of the key differences between Western and Japanese firms such as the emergence of widely diversified industrial groups, but also on similarities. Using the model developed originally by Channon the author traces the development of diversification in Japan and the emergence of the multidivisional forms of organization which as in the West prove to be the major strategic and structural forms in Japan by 1970.     

Credit and Business Cycles

This paper presents two dynamic models of the economy in which credit constraints arise because creditors cannot force debtors to repay debts unless the debts are secured by collateral. The credit system becomes a powerful propagation mechanism by which the effects of shocks persist and amplify through the interaction between collateral values, borrowers' net worth and credit limits. In particular, when fixed assets serve as collateral, I show that relatively small, temporary shocks to technology or wealth distribution can generate large, persistent fluctuations in output and asset prices.
JEL Classification Numbers: E32, E44     

China's Non-Performing Bank Loan Crisis: the role of economic rents

Various reasons have been put forward to explain the massive accumulation of non-performing loans in China. This paper applies the financial-restraint model as the analytical framework and argues that failure to create sufficient economic rents is the chief reason underlying the current dismal performance of banks. While the formal financial system is less important than the informal system—especially for financing the private enterprises that are playing a crucial role in economic growth—not addressing the non-performing loan crisis in the formal financial system will likely invite an economic slow-down.     

Local and Personal Networks in Employment and the Development of Labor Markets: Evidence from the Cut Flower Industry in Ethiopia

We examine the roles of local and personal networks in the employment process and the emergence and development of the labor market in Ethiopia’s growing cut flower industry. Using primary survey data of 320 workers randomly sampled from all 64 farms, we find that workers who were recruited informally using the social ties were paid less than the formally-recruited workers at hiring. However, these workers quickly increased their productivity, and the effect of social ties on wages disappeared over time. Further, we find that the development of labor market for this newly-emerged industry took place particularly within the industrial cluster.     

Who are the members of the international club?

This article proposes pragmatic methods that incorporate recent contributions to public good theory to identify the members of the international club and how they select new members. This article also suggests simple applications to the recent problems in international clubs such as the euro and NATO.