Japanese manufacturing facing post-Fukushima power crisis: a dynamic computable general equilibrium analysis with foreign direct investment

The Great East Japan Earthquake and the subsequent tsunami that hit and severely damaged the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station resulted indirectly in the shutdown of most of the nuclear power plants in Japan. To compensate for the lost nuclear power supply, more fossil fuels were used. People became concerned that this could be disadvantageous for domestic manufacturing industries and accelerated their offshoring to Asia, especially China, through foreign direct investment (FDI). We used a world trade computable general equilibrium (CGE) model with endogenous FDI from Japan to China to quantify the impact of the power crisis on the Japanese manufacturing sectors. We found that the power crisis as well as FDI would adversely affect several sectors that use power intensively, but would benefit the transportation equipment (TEQ), electric equipment (EEQ) and machinery sectors, despite the common expectation that these sectors would undergo a so-called ‘hollowing-out.’     

Estimation of the Investment Thresholds of Large Japanese Manufacturers

We approximate the investment threshold by the point at which a logistic curve has the largest curvature of convexity. Our threshold estimates are 1.82 and 1.51 in Tobin's marginal Q for machinery manufacturers and chemical/metal manufacturers, respectively. These numbers lie in between the two estimates calculated by Barnett and Sakellaris for US manufacturers. Our estimates exceed one in all industries, which also agrees with Dixit and Pindyck's analytic result. The threshold for the electrical machinery industry is higher than the others. An increase in uncertainty raises the investment threshold, while an appreciation in asset value lowers it.
JEL Classification Numbers: C23, E22.     

An Artificial Neural Network Test For Structural Change With Unspecified Parametric Form

Tests for a structural change of unknown timing in parameterized regression functions have been introduced previously under the maintained assumption that the models are correctly specified. However, the existing family of tests are unable to discriminate between structural change and misspecification. This paper introduces test statistics which do not require specification of the parametric form of the underlying data-generating process (DGP). I approximate it by a version of artificial neural networks (ANN). My simulation studies indicate that an ANN approximates the DGP quite well and that the derived tests have good power relative to the power envelope.
JEL Classification Numbers: C12, C14, C45.     

The accounting figuration of business statistics as a foundation for the spread of economic ideas

The new accounting research has been devoted to illuminating the social and constitutive aspects of accounting. This has been done, however, in many cases, in the setting of micro managerial accounting. The effects of financial and macroeconomic accounting on modern economic society have not been examined in depth from an epistemological and critical viewpoint. This article attempts to develop a hypothesis that financial accounting (particularly, that of macro economic entities) has been centrally implicated in the process through which economic ideas and economic management have become ubiquitous in modern society. Accounting's power and the reason for its steady growth are sought in its various formalities rather than its representational capacity. Several factors that are considered to constitute the formalities form a self-perpetuating apparatus that facilitates the prevalence of accounting in modern economic society.     

Charitable behavior in China under the Charity Law: Evaluation of charity advertisements involving in-groups and out-groups

This paper examines Chinese charitable behavior in 2016—the year the Charity Law was enforced—with a focus on the evaluation of charity advertisements. The 2016 Charity Law is the first law in China to regulate charitable organizations and their activities. It also provides various tax incentives for charitable organizations and donors. A study was conducted to understand Chinese charitable behavior in terms of in-groups and out-groups. Results indicate that the Chinese more positively evaluate charity advertisements targeting in-groups than those targeting out-groups. This relationship between advertisement type and advertisement attitude is mediated by ethnocentrism. Furthermore, we found that familiarity with the Charity Law moderates the effect of ethnocentrism on advertisement attitude.     

Retail power market competition with endogenous entry decision—An auction data analysis

Deregulation in the electric power industry has been aimed at promoting competition and thereby enhancing the industry’s efficiency. We use the auction data of public power procurements to study the impact of the reform on the retail power market in Japan. We quantify this impact by measuring a decline in power charges, controlling for the endogeneity bias caused by the entrants’ bid-submission decisions. Our results suggest that power charges would decline by about 0.48 yen/kW h on average when two or more providers bid at an auction.     

Women and risk-taking behaviour in local public finance

This study examines how female representation in local elected (mayor and legislature) and administrative (mid-level manager) positions influences municipal financial decision-making in 764 Japanese city-level governments. Findings show that female representation in local councils is positively correlated with risk-averse behaviour in financial decisions, as female representation on the legislature is negatively associated with issuing municipal bonds and with local investment in public corporations. Female representation in executive (mayor and vice-mayor) and mid-level administrative managerial positions has no apparent effects on local financial decisions. This study tests existing explanations of relationships between female managerial representation and fiscal behaviour in an Asian developed setting characterized by considerable underrepresentation of women in politics.     

Managing ambidextrous organizations for corporate transformation: a case study of Fujifilm

The concept of ambidextrous organizations, allowing exploration and exploitation activities to coexist within an organization, has attracted considerable interest. We aim to advance the framework of ambidextrous organizations by incorporating the concept of product substitutability. We initially focus on the substitutability of an exploratory product for an existing core product, propose cannibalistic and complementary types of ambidextrous organizations, and discuss their effective management. This is followed by an in‐depth case study of Fujifilm, illustrating how distinguishing between two types of an ambidextrous organization explains effectively the corporate transformation process of Fujifilm.     

Financial crises,bank risk exposure and government financial policy

A macroeconomic model with financial intermediation is developed in which the intermediaries (banks) can issue outside equity as well as short term debt. This makes bank risk exposure an endogenous choice. The goal is to have a model that can not only capture a crisis when banks are highly vulnerable to risk, but can also account for why banks adopt such a risky balance sheet in the first place. We use the model to assess quantitatively how perceptions of fundamental risk and of government credit policy in a crisis affect the vulnerability of the financial system ex ante. We also study the effects of macro-prudential policies designed to offset the incentives for risk-taking.