Welfare gain from quality and price development in the Japan’s LCD TV market

We estimate the welfare gain from innovations in the LCD TVs that prevailed during the period 2005–2007 in Japan, via consumer surplus that we measure with the aid of discrete choice methods, using market data obtained from an internet price comparison service (Kakaku.com). Further, by the measured implicit values of attributes, we evaluate in monetary terms, the qualitative transition embedded in the attributes through the iso-consumer surplus planes. We thereby disaggregate the welfare gain into the qualitative and the budgetary components, which we call the quality gain, and the budget gain, respectively. The estimates show, along with the evolved process of innovation, that the quality gain was in the order of 381 KJPY, while the budget gain was 94 KJPY negative, which gives about 287 KJPY of overall welfare gain per consumer, during the period.     

A cointegrated commodity pricing model

We propose a commodity pricing model that extends the Gibson–Schwartz two‐factor model to incorporate the effect of linear relations among commodity spot prices, and provide a condition under which such linear relations represent cointegration. We derive futures and call option prices for the proposed model, and indicate that, unlike in Duan and Pliska (2004), the linear relations among commodity prices should affect commodity derivative prices, even when the volatilities of commodity returns are constant. Using crude oil and heating oil market data, we estimate the model and apply the results to the hedging of long‐term futures using short‐term ones.     

Extreme co-movements and extreme impacts in high frequency data in finance

Extreme co-movement and extreme impact problems are inherently stochastic control problems, since they will influence the decision taken today and ultimately influence a decision taken in the future. Extreme co-movements among financial assets have been reported in the literature. However, extreme impacts have not been carefully studied yet. In this paper, we use the newly developed methodology to further explore extreme co-movements and extreme impacts in financial market. Particularly, two FX spot rates are studied. Based on the results of our analysis with FX returns, we conclude that there exist extreme co-movements and extreme impacts in FX returns and care has to be taken when we employ portfolio optimization models, especially models without the ability of handling extreme dependencies.     

THE ROLE AND INTERNALIZATION OF HOMOGENEOUS AND NON‐HOMOGENEOUS DESIGN EFFECTS IN RECYCLING SYSTEMS

This paper considers recycling systems in which producers and a monopolistic recycler are independent agents, while the design of products determined by the producer affects the recycler's productivity. It is found that such design effects could be internalized within the economy, if the monopolistic recycler pays the normative values of the wasted products according to their designs, while the producers formulate design so as to minimize the product's net price. However, if unfortunate, the equilibrium may fall into a local optimum and may not be stable. We also investigate how such property of the equilibrium could be changed if the recycler's productivity is influenced by the diversity in recycle design.     

Japanese distribution system: The impact of newly designed collaborations on wholesalers' performance

In January 1995, the Kobe earthquake devastated a major part of Kobe's distribution infrastructure. Apart from the expected complaints about lost sales, wholesalers reported some surprising comments after the reopening. Wholesalers stressed the advantages of newly designed distribution channels, especially the opportunity to end longstanding business relationships known as keiretsu. This study is concerned with the recent development of vertical collaboration in the Japanese distribution channel. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the supplier's service to wholesaler, the supplier's offerings to the wholesaler, and buyer's service to the wholesaler did contribute to the enhancement of the performance of the wholesaler. The three factors explained 16% of the wholesaler's performance. The regression analysis also showed that the wholesaler's intra-logistics activities contributed to the improvement of the performance of the wholesaler and explained 5% of its performance.     

Security Innovation on Several Assets Under Asymmetric Information

The paper examines the optimal innovation of securities by an issuer who is endowed with several risky assets and private information on one of the assets. Assuming that the degree of asymmetric information between the issuer and the outside investor is large, we show that the issuer restricts the number of securities that he creates. We also show that the payoff of the security created by the issuer is not closely correlated, and is sometimes completely uncorrelated, with the payoff of the asset that is subject to the asymmetric information, depending on the hedging needs and the accuracy of information.
JEL Classification Numbers: D52, D82, G20.     

Capital procurement of a consumer cooperative: Role of the membership market

Cooperative firms are commonly thought to be financially weak and unable to flourish in the market economy. This paper addresses the idea that a consumer cooperative issues a membership, which represents an ownership share in the cooperative, as a method of procuring equity capital. It then shows that, in theory, consumer cooperatives are not necessarily financially weaker than investor-owned firms in the presence of a membership market. This implies that the consumer cooperative is potentially a promising alternative to the investor-owned firm when the latter type of firm induces serious market failure in the product market.     

Divergence or convergence?: Income inequality between cities,towns and villages in Japan

Researchers have emphasized different aspects of income inequality, including the statistical evidence of interregional per capita income convergence (following the economic growth theory) and the increase in individual income inequality. This study clarifies these issues, by analyzing the interregional income inequality of cities, towns and villages data in Japan from 1986 to 1999. The results of this empirical analysis show that the interregional income inequality decreases in the 1990s, in spite of the increase in individual income inequality.     

On estimating Armington elasticities for Japan's meat imports

By fully accounting for the distinct tariff regimes levied on imported meat, we estimate substitution elasticities of Japan's two-stage import aggregation functions for beef, chicken and pork. Although the regression analysis crucially depends on the price that consumers face, the post-tariff price of imported meat depends not only on ad valorem duties but also on tariff rate quotas and gate price system regimes. The effective tariff rate is consequently evaluated by utilising monthly transaction data. To address potential endogeneity problems, we apply exchange rates that we believe to be independent of the demand shocks for imported meat. The panel nature of the data allows us to retrieve the first-stage aggregates via time dummy variables, free of demand shocks, to be used as part of the explanatory variable and as an instrument in the second-stage regression.     

东北跨境民族的形成及文化传承发展研究的意义

中国东北有六个少数民族跨境而居.从民族形成的角度看,朝鲜族、 俄罗斯族是因为迁徙而形成的跨境民族;蒙古族、 赫哲族、 鄂伦春族和鄂温克族则是因为国家重新划界所造成的跨境民族.在政治和社会形态,以及文化生活方面已经因为所属国家的不同而有了鲜明的差异,但是在文化传统上、 在民族习俗上,以及文化发展传承上,这些跨境而居的民族却有着不可分割的血缘联系和相同的文化DNA.因此,探究和创新跨境民族文化传承具有特定的意义,同时对于全面建设小康社会,建设和平稳定、 与中国合作的周边环境,也是具有重要的借鉴意义.