Price distortion induced by a flawed stock market index

Despite the introduction of sophisticated stock market indices, investors often trade portfolios of the flawed indices to change their exposure to the market. In this study, we show that these transactions cause significant mispricing in individual stocks, especially during periods of significant market movement. As an influential, albeit flawed, stock index, we focus on the Nikkei 225. We find index constituents that are excessively weighted on the index, experience buying (selling) pressure when the stock market surges (falls), and experience price corrections after such periods of change. In contrast, non-constituent stocks do not experience such trading pressure.     

Structural Decomposition Analysis of Japan’s Energy Transitions and Related CO2 Emissions in 2005–2015 Using a Hybrid Input-Output Table

Environmental and Resource Economics - This study investigates Japan’s energy transitions in 2005–2015, which involved massive economic disruptions due to the 2011 Great East Japan...     

The influence of indoor air on personal exposure to volatile organic compounds and its risk estimation

This paper summarizes the results of personal exposure monitoring and estimates the risk from exposure to 18 volatile organic compounds compared with health criteria set by the US Environmental Protection Agency. In study 1, personal exposure levels and outdoor air concentrations were compared, and in study 2, personal exposure levels and the corresponding indoor air concentrations were compared. From these studies, it was concluded that personal exposure to volatile organic compounds depended markedly on indoor air quality and that handling of compounds increased personal exposure markedly. Risk estimations indicated that chloroform in tap water, benzene from cigarette smoke and p -dichlorobenzene from household insecticide needed caution.     

Why do reputable agents work for safer firms?

Safer firms receive funding from reputable venture capitalists and offer new securities underwritten by reputable investment banks. We offer a new explanation for these facts employing a moral-hazard model in which a firm and an agent are matched endogenously. More reputable agent's effort has a greater impact on output. Safer firm's output reflects the agent's hidden effort more accurately and therefore the agent's pay scheme tied with the output powerfully motivates her to exert effort. In equilibrium, a safer firm should be matched with a reputable agent since this combination allows to maximize effort of the reputable agent.     

On the cost-reducing effects of embodied technical progress: a panel study of the steel industry in Japan

To explicitly explain the cost-reducing effects of technical progress experienced by each firm, we assume that technical progress, namely, the prevalence of particular equipment, can be expressed by a function of logarithmic physical capital. Regarding the technology cost structure, we propose a modified dynamic cost function model that consists of the above equation, the translog variable cost equation containing technical progress as one of the factors, and Euler equations with respect to physical and research and development capital stocks. Using data on eight firms in the Japanese electric-furnace steel industry for the period 1970–1998, the model was empirically validated using the generalized method of moments. An elasticity of production cost with respect to technical progress showed a cost-reducing effect. This fact was influenced by the type of product and the extent of each firm’s R&D. Also derived from this model is one reasonable phenomenon of business-cyclically changing the use of endogenous capacity. This economic information supports the appropriateness of the above model, including the assumption of transforming technical progress into an endogenous variable, and the methods of analysis.     

The Changing Nature of Japanese Production Systems in the 1990s and Issues for Labour Studies

The authors discuss the changing character of production strategies and organizational arrangements at three leading Japanese automotive assemblers against a background of concern with the impact of work regimes upon employees. Innovations in production line organization are compared within and between the companies, and the argument advanced suggests that the attempt to ‘humanize’ work routines and procedures, by the leading company especially, has met with mixed results. Sornetimcs more ‘efficient’ technologies and forms of organization have been inhibited in the pursuit of ‘human-centred’ forms of work organization. Nevertheless, the article points up the considerable variations which exist both between and within Japanese companies and trade unions with respect to the understanding of the role played by labour.     

Parallel Consultant-Guided Search with Crossover

Consultant-guided search (CGS) is a recent metaheuristic method. This approach is an algorithm in which a virtual person called a client creates a solution based on consultation with a virtual person called a consultant. In this study, we propose a parallel CGS algorithm with a genetic algorithm’s crossover and selection, and calculate an approximation solution for the traveling salesman problem. We execute a computer experiment using the benchmark problems (TSPLIB). Our algorithm provides a solution with less than 3.3% error rate for problem instances using less than 6000 cities.     

The Performance of Development Banks: The Case of the Reconstruction Finance Bank

This paper analyzes the performance of the Reconstruction Finance Bank (RFB) in order to shed light on the role of development banks in fostering economic growth. The RFB played a large role in Japan′s transition from war-time command economy to a market economy in the early post-war period. We use individual firm level data on sales, profits, and loans from the RFB, and find that, initially, the RFB was making loans to firms with below-average performance. We then find that this was partly a result of political interventions into the loan policy of the RFB. In fact, we also find evidence of improvements in the performance of the RFB after its loan policy became more independent. Implications for developing economies are also discussed. J. Japan. Int. Econ., Dec. 1995, 9(4), pp. 486-504. Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 13, Japan.     

Endogenous timing in the switching of technology with Marshallian externalities

We analyze endogenous timing in the switching of technology. Each user chooses when to purchase a new product which embodies new technologies characterized by Marshallian externalities. The technological switch occurs when a large number of users purchase new products. Under complete information, multiple market equilibria exist, and one of the equilibria in which technological switching occurs is efficient. However, if we introduce even a small amount of uncertainty, the switch is delayed in the unique equilibrium under perfect competition, resulting in a loss of social welfare. The market power of a monopolistic supplier of new products alleviates this inefficiency.     

The quality effect: Does financial liberalization improve the allocation of capital?

We document evidence of a “quality effect” of financial liberalization on allocative efficiency, as measured by dispersion in Tobin's Q across firms. We predict that financial liberalization, by equalizing access to credit, is associated with reduced variation in expected marginal returns. We test this prediction using a new financial liberalization index and firm-level data for five emerging markets: India, Jordan, Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand. We find robust evidence that financial liberalization, rather than financial deepening, is associated with improved allocative efficiency.