International Economies of Scale and the Gains from Trade

In this paper, we present a two-country trade model with external economies of scale that emerge on an international level but are partially localized in each country. First, we show that the larger country exports the good produced in an industry with external economies of scale in the trading equilibrium. Second, we investigate the welfare effects of trade for the following two cases: (I) the case where external economies are completely localized in autarky; (II) the case where external economies are internationally effective in autarky. In case (II), it is shown that trade can be welfare-decreasing for both countries.     

EVALUATION OF ASIAN AIRPORTS AS GATEWAYS: APPLICATION OF NETWORK EQUILIBRIUM MODEL

This research applies the bi‐level market model to the Asia‐based international air transport markets. The model is a two‐stage game in which airlines act as leaders and passengers act as followers. Airlines are assumed to control flight frequencies, and passengers are assumed to choose their optimal route. At the equilibrium point, we have subgame perfect equilibrium. We apply this model to 2003 Asia‐based international air transport markets and conduct some scenario studies. We find that discounting landing charges at Narita Airport increases the passenger flow but diminishes the gateway function for trans‐Pacific transport.     

Proportional income taxes and cores in a public goods economy

An equivalence relationship between cores and Pareto optimal allocations of a public goods economy where the public goods are to be provided through a proportional income tax is presented. For this purpose, the definition of the core is modified by allowing coalitions to tax their complements at any given rate. Also, a certain rule which specifies the rate is introduced.     

The futures premium and rice market efficiency in prewar Japan

This article studies the interrelation between spot and futures prices in the two major rice markets in prewar Japan from the perspective of market efficiency. Applying a non‐Bayesian time‐varying model approach to the fundamental equation for spot returns and the futures premium, we detect when efficiency reductions in the two major rice markets occurred. We also examine how government interventions affected the rice markets in Japan, which colonized Taiwan and Korea before the Second World War, and argue that the function of rice futures markets crucially depended on the differences in the structure of rice spot markets. Initially the increased volume of imported rice of a different variety from domestic rice disrupted the rice futures markets. Then, government intervention in the rice futures markets failed to improve the disruption. Changes in colonial rice cropping successfully mitigated the disruption, and colonial rice was promoted in order to unify the different varieties of inland and colonial rice.     

Algebra for Enterprise Ontology: towards analysis and synthesis of enterprise models

Enterprise modeling methodologies have made enterprises more likely to be the object of systems engineering rather than craftsmanship. However, the current state of research in enterprise modeling methodologies lacks investigations of the mathematical background embedded in these methodologies. Abstract algebra, a broad subfield of mathematics, and the study of algebraic structures may provide interesting implications in both theory and practice. Therefore, this research gives an empirical challenge to establish an algebraic structure for one aspect model proposed in Design & Engineering Methodology for Organizations (DEMO), which is a major enterprise modeling methodology in the spotlight as a modeling principle to capture the skeleton of enterprises for developing enterprise information systems. The results show that the aspect model behaves well in the sense of algebraic operations and indeed constructs a Boolean algebra. This article also discusses comparisons with other modeling languages and suggests future work.     

A note on the core of an income redistribution game

We consider a redistribution of income by an n-person game in which each member is levied a proportional income tax under some fixed rule. It is shown that the redistribution that will be achieved by a specific negative income tax is in the core of the game, which means that the redistribution can not be upset by any coalition of members acting strategically to evade the full taxation.     

AN ANALYSIS OF TRANSBOUNDARY POLLUTION AND THE GAINS FROM TRADE: RECONSIDERATION

Abstract.  This paper investigates the effects of transboundary pollution on trade and welfare in a two-country, two-good, one-factor model in which pollution is treated as a negative cross-industry externality. It is shown that trade may improve countries' natural environment and consequently raises the countries' welfare if a comparative advantage in a pollution-producing good is held by a country that greatly surpasses the other in pollution abatement technology. This result has not been obtained from existing models of this type.     

Do the Rich Save More in Japan? Evidence Based on two Micro Data Sets for the 2000s

Using two household surveys, this paper investigates whether the saving rates of richer households are higher than those of poorer households in Japan. We construct a number of proxies for lifetime wealth, including those original to this study, and find marginally positive correlations between saving rates and lifetime wealth for working age households. We further find that the relationship between saving rates and lifetime wealth differs depending on the life stage of individual households. Older households with higher lifetime wealth appear to be dissaving to some extent, which is more or less consistent with the lifecycle model of consumption.     

Vertical specialization in North–South trade: Industrial relocation,wage and welfare

This paper presents a North–South trade model with vertically linked industries and examines how declining costs of trade across stages of production encourage vertical specialization and affect wages and welfare. As trade costs fall below a threshold, the production of all final goods relocates to the South and vertical specialization emerges. In some industries, production of intermediate goods also relocates against comparative costs because of benefits of co‐location, and further declines in trade costs lead to reshoring. A country may temporarily lose from falling trade costs, but both countries can be better off after trade costs fall sufficiently.