Did Japan's shopping coupon program increase spending?

In March 1999, 31 million “shopping coupons” worth 20,000 yen each were distributed to Japanese families with children and to the elderly. The coupons expired after six months and could only be used within the recipient's local community. We use variation in the number of children across families and in the number of recipients across prefectures to measure the effect of the coupons on spending. We find that coupons had a positive effect on spending on semi-durables, but no effect on spending on nondurables or services. The marginal propensity to consume on semi-durables was 0.1–0.2 when the coupons were distributed in March. The results using regional variation provide stronger evidence that spending did not fall after the coupons had been redeemed.     

The effects of consumption externalities in an R&D-based growth model with endogenous skilled and unskilled labor supply

We examine the roles of consumption externalities in a variety-expansion growth model. By assuming that the R&D sector is more skilled labor intensive than the consumption goods sector, we extend the model of Doi and Mino (J Econ Dyn Control 32:3055?C3083, 2008) so that both the skilled and unskilled labor supplies are endogenously determined through the skill acquisition process. We show that some results of Doi and Mino are influenced by our modification. For example, in contrast to Doi and Mino who show that the R&D subsidy can have a negative growth effect in the presence of consumption externalities, we show that the R&D subsidy has unambiguously positive growth effects, regardless of the presence of consumption externalities. Further, it is shown that the presence of consumption externalities influences various aspects of the economy including the wage inequality and the incentive of skill acquisition.     

Competitive price paths of an exhaustible resource with increasing extraction costs

The paper analyzes the competitive growth paths of an economy with an exhaustible resource which is subject to increasing extraction costs, assuming perfect foresight. It establishes equivalence among the competitive present-value maximization condition for deposit holders, the generalized Hotelling rule, and the Ricardian royalty-price structure. It also proves uniqueness of a competitive growth path for the case where a backstop technology exists, in order to give some validity to the assumption of perfect foresight.     

Is the Sky the Limit? Can Japanese Government Bonds Continue to Defy Gravity?

This paper presents a simulation model based on the growth rate, the inflation rate, and the consumption tax rate in the future. Future tax revenues and fiscal expenditures are projected using regression models estimated from past data. The fiscal situation is called unsustainable if the outstanding amount of Japanese government bonds (JGBs) becomes higher than the level of private sector financial assets. We focus on the general account of the central government, which is the source of JGB issues. We find that the higher the economic growth, the more likely it is that the fiscal situation is sustainable. When a larger portion of interest income is reinvested in JGBs, the chance is higher that the fiscal situation is sustainable. Most importantly, raising the consumption tax to 20% guarantees fiscal sustainability in most cases. Our analysis shows that without a consumption tax hike beyond the 10% rate, a fiscal crisis will be almost a certainty, even with a real economic growth rate of 2% despite a shrinking labor force. A reasonably quick hike of the consumption tax, namely a hike by 1% a year, up to 20%, combined with high or moderate economic growth rates, seems to keep the economy out of a fiscal crisis, where a moderate growth rate is defined to be generated by a productivity increase per working‐age population of 1.9%, which was the average during the Koizumi years.     

Comparison of attitudes towards school lunch by elementary school children in Japan,Korea and Thailand

The attitudes of elementary school children towards school lunch among three Asian countries, namely Japan, Korea and Thailand, were compared. More school children in Japan felt that their teachers gave them advice during the school lunch programme. Japanese and Korean teachers advised their children to eat as much as possible of the lunch. Korean children may be a little more obedient with regard to heeding the advice. However, few teachers in Thailand gave the children advice over eating lunch, and the Thai children looked forward to and enjoyed the school lunch. The different responses between Thailand and other two countries may be attributed in part to the differences in the teachers' instruction in the programme. Elementary school teachers, especially in Thailand and Korea, have to take more classes in food and nutrition in universities or colleges, and positively take part in the school lunch programme.     

Non-paternalistic Altruism and Utility Interdependence

This paper clarifies the notion of non-paternalistic altruism through the use of utility aggregators. It presents conditions for the existence of non-paternalistically altruistic utility functions and provides a complete characterization of such utility functions. The results are used to generalize the Second Theorem of Welfare Economics and to prove the existence of an equilibrium in a game of voluntary gift-giving.
JEL Classification Nos.: D11, D64.     

Cost accounting standard and cost accounting systems in Japan. Lessons from the past - recovering lost traditions

This paper aims to show two things. The first is how Japanese culture has contributed to the development of Japanese cost accounting history. The second is to reveal the research possibilities of cost accounting history. This paper also reviews the salient features of several important examples of these aspects of cost accounting practice in Japan. It therefore explores, through some practical illustrations, how and why Japanese cost accounting differs from that found in the West.