中国资本账户自由化的战略

资本账户开放,过去一直被认为是跻身国际金融社会的先决条件,而现在却不再被认为是绝对必要的,至少,资本账户开放不再被认为是每个国家都急切希望实现的经济政策目标。认识到资本账户开放在20世纪90年代一些国家的货币和金融危机中可能扮演了增加金融脆弱性的角色之后,[1]对自由化速度的主流看法发生了微妙的变化。即使在长期资本账户开放仍然是一个希望达成的目标,但大多数经济学家都开始认为,对于从一个压抑的金融体系到一个完全自由化的体系的转型过程的处理必须慎之又慎。如果转型不是一蹴而就的,那么顺序问题就变得至关重要。整个转型…     

Is racial salary discrimination disappearing in the NBA? evidence from data during 1985–2015

This study re-examines the racial salary gap of National Basketball Association players by constructing a long unbalanced panel covering the 1985–1986 to 2015–2016 seasons. Contrary to the results of previous studies, we find that non-white players are paid equally to white players with similar characteristics in the 1980s and 1990s, but that white players started to be paid about 20% more than non-white players in the last 10 years. Our results are robust to all specification checks, such as quantile regressions, controlling sample selection, different contract types, and player nationality. We find that neither employer preference nor income gap of white and black residents explains this increasing salary gap.     

Post‐IRCJ challenges: changing Japanese culture to enable early revitalization of troubled corporations

The Industrial Revitalization Corporation of Japan (IRCJ) was created in 2003 to restructure distressed debtor corporations with excessive debts before their bankruptcy with a view to deterring ever‐increasing non‐ and poor‐performing loans. The IRCJ successfully reorganized target debtor companies through the out‐of‐court workout with multiple financial institutions where unanimous consent of financial creditors is required. Since the lifetime of the IRCJ is limited, the IRCJ cannot rescue troubled corporations after the end of March 2005. From then onward, the out‐of‐court workout should be utilized more widely in Japan in order to revitalize distressed businesses at an early stage without impairing the rights of trade creditors and deteriorating the value of the businesses. To make the workout most effective, it is important to ensure that the statutory reorganization procedures, including the majority rule, are applied more flexibly and reliably. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exchange rate movements and foreign direct investment (FDI): Japanese investment in Asia, 1987–2008

The paper estimates the impact of exchange rate movements on foreign direct investment (FDI). By using the panel data of Japanese FDI flows to nine dynamic Asian economies during 1987–2008, the paper finds that (i) FDI declined with a depreciation of the yen against host country currencies; (ii) it increased with exchange rate volatility; and (iii) it was little affected by the Asian financial crisis, especially when disguised financial flows were removed from the data. A novel result concerns the negative response of FDI to the third moment of monthly exchange rate changes: the volume of FDI was smaller when the distribution was positively skewed (i.e., when the yen was biased towards relatively large depreciation shocks). If skewness proxies for expected mean-reverting changes, this supports the idea that source country investors care about the future stream of revenues and returns denominated in their own currency. These results are robust, with other standard control variables having statistically significant coefficients with expected signs.     

Proposal to Formulate “Global Informal Workout Rules” Adopting “Asian Bankers' Association Informal Workout Guidelines” and “Model Agreement to Promote Company Restructuring by Informal Workout” with Some Minor Amendments

The INSOL 8 Principles is a set of model domestic rules for out‐of‐court workouts. Many Asian countries have created workout rules referring to the Principles. A uniform insolvency code applicable worldwide may be impossible to achieve. Instead, international professional associations such as the INSOL International and/or official international organizations such as the World Bank may be able to establish global informal workout rules that are applicable in cases to restructure multinational business enterprises that are indebted to multinational financial creditors. The “Asian Bankers' Association Informal Workout Guidelines” and the “Model Agreement to Promote Company Restructuring by Informal Workout” of 2005 are buried treasure tools. They could be transformed to global rules with some minor amendments with the consent of the Association. Copyright © 2013 INSOL International and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd     

An alternative approach to the divergence indicator in the European monetary system

The views expressed in the paper do not reflect those of the International Monetary Fund.     

Calculations of the shares of financial resources paid by actual payers for transportation improvements

In this paper we identify and quantitatively describe the actual providers of financial resources, termed “actual payers”, for transportation improvements in some advanced countries, using various statistical data. The theoretical framework on which the concept of actual payers is based was presented in our earlier paper (Transport Policy, April 1998). The current study presents the results of calculations performed according to that concept. Because of the complexity and variety of the financial resources drawn on by transportation systems, the means of financial support for transportation have not been made clear when superficial classifications such as “National expenditures”, “Local expenditures”, “Owners/operators' funds” and “Debt” are used. In the present study, the financial support for transportation is calculated on the basis of what is spent by actual payers, such as users, payers of national taxes and payers of local taxes. This approach allows us to show that the shares of actual payers are quite different in each country. In addition, we indicate the characteristics of the shares of the actual payers in each country by calculating the ratio of the users' burden or the dependence of debt, etc.     

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.     

Foreign Exchange Intervention and Monetary Policy: A Tale of Two Agencies with Conflicting Objectives

In several industrial countries, the government is responsible for foreign exchange intervention while the central bank is given operational independence in conducting domestic monetary policy. We model the interaction between the two agencies when their views differ and generate empirical implications using lattice‐theoretic techniques. Japanese data from 2001–2004 support the model's predictions with respect to central bank behavior. The evidence is less conclusive as to whether the massive intervention of 2001–2004 by the Ministry of Finance caused the Bank of Japan to raise the monetary target.     

Globalization of Information Services and the Industrial Structure of the Japanese Economy

Since the late 1990s, ICT has rebuilt organizational networks by connecting value chains and providing communication networks. This made certain types of services tradable, including information services. This change raised the public concern in terms of the effect on employment and innovation capacity in developed economies. The fragmentation of the production network of information services has been led by US firms, but is spreading to East Asia, typically in outsourcing from Japan to China, India and the ASEAN countries. This study empirically assesses the effect of offshore outsourcing on employment in Japan, specifying trading partners. The results show that information services outsourcing affects employment in the manufacturing sector in Japan, but the effect is different depending on trading partners. This study discusses the implications from the viewpoint of industry policy, relating the results to outsourced business processes.