Modeling the urban land market: The case of Japan

Two sets of negative exponential functions, one for urban residential density and the second for land price, are estimated. The parameters of these functions are then employed in an econometric model of land use and urban form in 71 Japanese cities. Several variables are determined, including average land price, gross population density, housing size, and population.     

Credit Events and the Valuation of Credit Derivatives of Basket Type

Thispaper provides a simple model for valuing a credit derivativewhose payoff depends on the identity (or identities) of the first(or first two) to occur of a given list of credit events, suchas defaults. The joint survival probability of occurrence timesof credit events is formulated in terms of stochastic intensityprocesses under the assumption of conditional independence. Basedon the joint survival probability, we can easily obtain the pricingformulas of such credit derivatives under the risk-neutral valuationframework. When the default intensity processes follow the extendedVasicek model, closed-form solutions of the pricing formulasare given.     

The composite cost function and efficiency in giant Japanese banks

This study provides further empirical investigation, in the context of giant Japanese banks, of the recent claim by Pulley and Braunstein (1992, A composite cost function for multiproduct firms with an application to economies of scope in banking, Review of Economics and Statistics 74, 221–230), that their new composite model for the multiproduct cost function has important advantages over the separable quadratic, generalized translog and standard translog models. In addition to assessing the composite model's relative ability in measuring global scope and scale economies, the study also extends the P-B analysis to assess measurement of product-specific scope and scale economies, pairwise cost complementarities between outputs, changes in the marginal costs of outputs and technological change. The results appear to confirm P-B's chain. The persistent finding of scale economies for large Japanese banks is also investigated and confirmed.     

A different interpretation from Cornet's on tourism development in an ethnic minority village in China

There have been tensions as ethnic tourism develops in western China leading to various responses from local people, including resistance. Cornet discussed Dong villagers’ responses to tourism development in Zhaoxing using concepts such as livelihoods, resistance, agency, and ethnicity. This paper aims to reinterpret these responses and extend the scope of discussion through multiple case studies using primary data collected in our fieldwork. This study showed that the issues involving ethnic minority groups mentioned by Cornet commonly appear in Han areas and ethnicity is less significant in local responses to tourism development. In addition, we found that villagers have little voice in tourism development and their rights and interests are often ignored by local government. These findings have important implications for increasing our understanding of the issues arising from ethnic tourism.     

Investigating Collaborative R&D Using Patent Data: The Case Study of Robot Technology in Japan

The growing trend of collaborative R&D initiated by firms has been well documented. However, the evidences regarding basic questions such as the benefits of collaboration and the motives of firms are still mixed. The main novelty of this paper is to investigate these questions by using comprehensive patent data with a focus on information concerning inventors. We consider the case of robot technology in Japan since early 1990s and get the following results. First, collaboration with external research partners lead to a higher quality of the invention. Second, the determinants and motives, which encourage firms to engage in collaborative research, differ depending on the partner they are collaborating with. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

WHY DO MANDATED INTERNATIONAL JOINT VENTURES STILL EXIST?

It is widely believed that restrictions against foreign direct investment (FDI) should be eliminated altogether. However, local equity requirements (LERs) that effectively mandate multinational enterprises (MNEs) to enter through international joint ventures (IJVs) are still common and are seemingly persistent. We seek to understand why and how governments are motivated to adopt LERs. We demonstrate that LERs can in fact be host governments' optimal choices when regulating the entry of MNEs into domestic markets formerly dominated by public firms. (JEL F13, F23, L32)     

INTANGIBLE INVESTMENT IN JAPAN: MEASUREMENT AND CONTRIBUTION TO ECONOMIC GROWTH

Following the approach of Corrado, Hulten, and Sichel (2005, 2006 ), we measure intangible investment and examine the contribution of intangible capital to economic growth in Japan. We find that the ratio of intangible investment to GDP in Japan has risen during the past 20 years and now stands at 11.1 percent, which is lower than the ratio estimated for the U.S. in the early 2000s. The ratio of intangible to tangible investment in Japan is also lower than equivalent values estimated for the U.S. In addition, we find that, in stark contrast to the U.S., where intangible capital grew rapidly in the late 1990s, the growth rate of intangible capital in Japan declined from the late 1980s to the early 2000s. Our conclusions regarding intangible investment in Japan remain largely unchanged even if, using data with respect to firm-specific resources, we take on-the-job training into account.