New Evidence on Intra‐Household Allocation of Resources in Japanese Households

This paper examines intra‐household allocation of resources to gain insight into family relationships and gender bias in Japanese households. We take the Engel curve approach to examine how adult consumption is affected by the presence of a child, either a boy or a girl, in the family. Empowered by diary‐based high quality spending data from the Family Income and Expenditure Survey, our empirical results show that adult consumption is significantly reduced in households with children; furthermore, gender bias is not observed in total adult expenditures, while responses of adult clothing expenses to the presence of a child are significantly different between a boy and a girl: spending on a father's clothing is reduced when the child is a school‐aged daughter, while spending on a mother's clothing decreases when a school‐aged son is in the home. Our analysis also shows that after the early 2000s girls receive a larger share of spending for children's clothing as well as for high school education than boys.     

How to promote sustainable public bike system from a psychological perspective?

The public bike system (PBS) has been actively promoted worldwide for the last decade. This study tried to find out policy strategies for sustainable PBS implementation targeting on the city that is under consideration of introducing bike sharing scheme. For this, the authors considered some psychological factors that may make impacts on PBS user's attitudes and hypothesized especially that individual environmental concern refers to an attitude toward environmental issues, influence an increase of their perceived value of PBS. The Norm Activation Model (NAM) is used to measure the public's environmental concern incorporating norm activation. In addition, willingness to pay (WTP) method is adopted to investigate the value of PBS individuals. Structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that environmental concern influenced people's perception of the value of PBS. Furthermore, the positive correlation between environmental concern and awareness of consequences on cycling is observed. The study verifies how people perceive the value of a bike sharing system and how often people using a bicycle are dependent on their environmental concern. In conclusion, authors discuss how PBS could be promoted sustainably by suggesting policy strategies to enhance the perceived value of PBS and to increase bicycle use.     

COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF MRIO DATABASES

This editorial is the introduction to a special issue of Economics Systems Research on the topic of intercomparison of multi-regional input–output (MRIO) databases and analyses. It explains the rationale for dedicating an issue of this journal to this area of research. Then the six papers chosen for this issue are introduced. This is followed by a concluding section outlining future directions for developers and users of MRIO databases.     

Price expectations and consumption under deflation: evidence from Japanese household survey data

The Japanese economy has experienced price deflation since the mid-1990s. Despite the importance of overcoming deflation, there has been little recent research on price expectations in Japan. This paper takes advantage of an original and rich quarterly household-level data set from the “Kokumin Seikatsu Monitors” to estimate average price expectations, examine the factors that affect price expectations, and examine how changes in price expectations have affected household consumption. Our estimates indicate that average price expectations ranged from minus 0.2 to 0% in 2001 and 2002. However, there was an increase to 1% in the first quarter of 2003, followed by a decline to 0.2% in the second quarter, and a steady increase toward 0.8% by the first quarter of 2004. Price expectations depend on current price movements and lagged expectations. A series of quantitative easing monetary policies were not very effective in changing the price expectations, since the policy announcements caused revision of price expectations only for a small portion, i.e., 5–10% of people surveyed. The jump observed in the first quarter of 2003 was a reaction to the outbreak of the Iraq war. Our study also confirms that deflationary expectations discourage household consumption, mainly durable consumption, by delaying the timing of purchases, suggesting that the deflationary expectations should be upwardly revised to restore a vital Japanese economy.     

The myth of racial discrimination in pay in the United States

The analyses of the General Social Survey data from 1974 to 2000 replicate earlier findings from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth that racial disparity in earnings disappears once cognitive ability is controlled for. The results are robust across many alternative specifications, and further show that blacks receive significantly greater returns to their cognitive ability than nonblacks. The trend data show that there was no sign of racial discrimination in the United States as early as 1970s. The analyses call into question the necessity of and justification for preferential treatment of ethnic minorities. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The determinants of exit from institutions and the price elasticity of institutional care: Evidence from Japanese micro-level data

This study examines how the price mechanism affects the length of residents’ at institutions and their destination after exit. Using micro-level data from The Survey on Care Service Providers compiled by the Japanese government, we show that the price elasticity of the hazard of exit was 1.7 from welfare care facilities was 1.8 from health care facilities. Moreover, our estimates reveal that a 1 percentage point increase in copayments leads to an increase in the probability of returning home by 0.04% for residents of welfare care facilities and 3.7% for those of health care facilities and a decrease in the probability of being re-hospitalized by 3.3% for residents of health care facilities and 1.9% for those of medical care facilities. Our findings demonstrate that an appropriate price policy may work well to shorten clients’ length of stay and to reduce the number of the socially institutionalized.     

Product Downsizing and Hidden Price Increases: Evidence from Japan's Deflationary Period

In this paper, we empirically examine the extent to which product downsizing occurred during the deflationary period in Japan, as well as the effects of product downsizing on prices and quantities sold. Using scanner data on prices and quantities for all products sold at about 200 supermarkets over the last 10 years, we find that about one third of product replacements were accompanied by a size/weight reduction. We also find that a 1‐percentage point larger size/weight reduction is associated with a 0.45‐percentage point larger price decline, resulting in an effective price increase. Finally, we show that the quantities sold decline with product downsizing, and that the responsiveness of the quantity sold to size/weight changes is almost the same as the price elasticity, indicating that consumers are as sensitive to size/weight changes as they are to price changes. Our results suggest that the Japanese consumer price index may be downwardly biased rather than upwardly biased.     

The Accounting Profession as a Career Choice for Tertiary Business Students in Japan-A Factor Analysis

This study aims to investigate the major factors that influence Japanese tertiary business students' vocational choice. A questionnaire-based survey was administered to both accounting and non-accounting students in Japanese tertiary institutions at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The results of two individualized factor analyses indicated significant differences between factors influencing the career profiles of both these groups of students. It further shows that the major influence affecting vocational choice for accounting students was based on intrinsic values. Non-accounting students indicated career prospects as the major contributing factor when choosing a career. These results are very important for accounting educators in Japan as they attempt to address the current unpopularity of the accounting profession.     

Exploring the causal relationship between hospital length of stay and re-hospitalization among Japanese AMI patients

We explore the causal relationship between hospital length of stay (LOS) and re-hospitalization for Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) patients in Japan, where the average LOS is the longest among OECD countries. Using chart-based data, we address the endogeneity between LOS and re-hospitalization probability by using an exogenous variation based on Rokuyo (the six basic labels allocated to each day), which is found to be irrelevant to admission day but relevant to discharge day. While we do find a significant and positive association between LOS and re-hospitalization probability in the OLS estimation, we do not find a significant relationship once LOS is instrumented by Rokuyo in various instrumental variable estimations. This implies that additional stay that was induced owing to patient’s choice of preferred Rokuyo at discharge has no effect on re-hospitalization probability.     

On ‘creative cities’ governance models: a comparative approach

The implementation of ‘creative cities’ projects all over the world in recent years has been characterised by a great diversity of institutional frameworks and governance mechanisms.

Departing from the contemporary debates on ‘creative industries’ and ‘creative cities’, this article aims to discuss this diversity of regulatory mechanisms and forms of governance. Some tentative typologies of case studies and governance mechanisms are drawn in order to improve the understanding of those dynamics, to build up knowledge on suitable ‘creative cities’ governance models, and to develop ideas to support a strategy for public intervention in the Portuguese case.