日本金融危机的前车之鉴

【美国《华尔街日报》10月22日】美国次债危机引发了全球金融市场动荡。日本在经历了上世纪80年代末的泡沫破裂之后，也曾于90年代出现类似的信心危机。造成那场危机的原因在于日本政府对动用国库资金向银行注资犹豫不决，而是仅仅以扩大需求面的错误政策来应对。当政府最终采取行动时，却走了弯路，而且也太晚。从日本泡沫破裂到政府第一次向银行注资整整隔了9年时间。     

Growth and inequality in the great and little divergence debate: a Japanese perspective

This article addresses the question of growth and inequality in the great and little divergence trajectories on both sides of Eurasia. A social table constructed for Tokugawa Japan in the 1840s is compared with two cases with high levels of inequality, Stuart England and Mughal India, and the subsequent changes in the three countries are traced to the modern era of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Japanese pattern in the early modern period can be characterized by comparatively modest growth with a relatively egalitarian distribution of income between the social classes, but the pattern changed during the subsequent half‐century to one with an increased tempo of growth and a substantial rise in the level of income inequality. The implications of this finding are discussed in terms of the concept of Smithian growth and are placed in the comparative context of the divergence debate.     

The labor market in Tokugawa Japan: Wage differentials and the real wage level, 1727–1830

Tokugawa economic history provides quite an interesting example of the workings of the labor market: In the Tokugawa period a contraction in occupational wage differentials occurred concurrently with a rise in real wages. This paper deals with these aspects of wage change and a general set of problems which has arisen about them. The first section sets out these problems; the second deals with the evidence on wage differentials and real wages in Kinai from 1727 to 1830. The third provides a theoretical framework to explain the findings; finally the last section examines the implications of the findings.     

New Dimensions of Financial Liberalization in Japan

This article contrasts the development of Japanese financial institutions over the past 50 years to that of the United States and compares the two countries’ household savings behavior. Although reform and liberalization is driving the Japanese financial sector to become more open and more sophisticated, there are powerful reasons for the Japanese system and Japanese asset-holding behavior to remain divergent from that of the United States. One major factor is that income and wealth in Japan are distributed much more evenly than in the United States. Since wealthy households are more sophisticated and better able to accommodate risk, the concentration of wealth in the United States means that, compared to Japan, there are more high income/high wealth households that are willing to take on risk from equity and bond holdings. In Japan, in contrast, there is a much heavier reliance on bank deposits. Even though financial institutions in the two countries are becoming more similar, the persistent differences in income distribution are likely to lead to persistent differences in asset holding and the composition of capital markets in the two countries. JEL Classification G2, O53     

A comparative analysis of new product development by Italian and Japanese manufacturing companies: A case study

Based on survey data from Italian and Japanese companies, six measurement scales are developed for practices, process, strategic guide, and capabilities for new product development as potential determinants of its financial performance, that is, attainment of profit goals and revenue goals. By employing a regression model with a country dummy variable, the differential determinants of financial goals attainment between Italian and Japanese samples are estimated. A significant difference can be found in the impact of new product development capabilities on profit goals attainment only. Then, we evaluate the level of improvement in explanatory power by dividing the pooled sample into two and enabling regression coefficients to take different values, and find no evidences of the significant improvement. Technology and marketing capabilities concerning new product development are demonstrated to be overwhelmingly important to financial performance.     

Disposition Effect and Diminishing Sensitivity: An Analysis Based on a Simulated Experimental Stock Market

The authors experimentally investigate the existence of the disposition effect and its relationship with diminishing sensitivity. Their approach includes 3 key characteristics: (i) an environment closely resembling actual stock markets, (ii) individual-specific reference prices, and (iii) a direct test of diminishing sensitivity as a correlate of the disposition effect. They find strong support for the existence of the disposition effect as an independent hypothesis. This is an improvement over previous studies, which tested this hypothesis only jointly with others. The authors' results also strongly point to diminishing sensitivity, of the type postulated by prospect theory, being positively associated with the disposition effect.