The Japanese Economy: Stagnation,Recovery, and Challenges

The Japanese economy is showing signs of a moderate recovery after more than two decades of stagnation. This stagnation was characterized by low inflation or outright deflation, subdued long-term interest rates, elevated government debt and chronic fiscal deficits, and the decline in its share of global exports. Monetary policy has been highly accommodative, marked by low and negative policy rates and the expansion of the central bank’s balance sheet. The country has been mired in a liquidity trap. Despite the recent recovery, observed inflation is still below the Bank of Japan’s target of 2.0%. Wage growth is muted even though the unemployment rate is low. Meanwhile, the working-age population continues to shrink, and the general population is rapidly aging. Japan’s export sector faces stiff competition. Openness to immigration is quite limited. This article analyzes Japan’s economic challenges in light of the moderate recovery after the protracted stagnation, ongoing demographic changes, the reforms of Abenomics, and globalization.     

Economization of Society: Functional Differentiation and Economic Stagnation

The explanation of economization and marketization processes is typically approached in the mindset of structural superiority, primacy or hegemony of the economic subsystem over non-economic spheres of social life. However, economic primacy is an underexplored puzzle for social theory from the perspective of functional differentiation theory, which emphasizes equal autonomy of social subsystems. Schimank has paved the way for theorizing economic primacy and economization pressures coherent with functional differentiation. Economization in his theoretical solution is connected to the economy’s governance mechanism—the market which is seen as having a weak order-building capacity. The contribution of this article lies in suggesting an alternative conceptualization of the internal dynamics of the economy—the stagnation tendency for explaining economization pressures as a systematic outcome.     

Revisiting the economics of climate change: the role of geoengineering

Technically simple measures to directly reduce mean global temperatures could be available in the near future. We introduce “geoengineering” into a simple analytical model of climate change. We model the technical and economic characteristics of geoengineering in line with the recent literature from physical and environmental management sciences. We investigate: (i) under which circumstances geoengineering can substitute, partly or completely, for traditional abatement strategies, (ii) under which conditions and at what level geoengineering is optimally employed, and (iii) whether geoengineering can mitigate free-riding problems.     

通向经济一体化：日本政策的演化

2000年10月22日,日本首相森喜朗与新加坡总理吴作栋同意就达成新时代伙伴关系的日新经济协定（JSEPA）于2001年1月展开正式谈判,其依据为日本－－新加坡自由贸易协定（JSFTA）联合研究组2000年9月发表的报告。这是日本首次为一个区域性经济一体化协定进行谈判。在格外强调需要应对全球化和技术进步所引起的挑战时,联合研究组探讨了两国间提出“新时代自由贸易协定”（New Age FTA）建议的各种可能因素,吴总理1999年12月曾提出这一建议。因此,JSEPA标志着日本在加强区域性经济一体化和探索这方面新因素的重大转折点。     

公司治理的核心--企业控制权配置的基础、问题和规范

企业控制权配置是公司治理的核心和关键。企业控制权配置的制度安排取决于其基础;而企业控制权配置状态又内生出各自不同的问题,使得企业控制权配置不能达到最优企业控制权安排;为了达到最优企业控制权安排,从规范的角度分析,就必须按照资源对企业的贡献程度来对企业控制权进行配置。     

Beyond the profit motive: The post-industrial corporation

Global approaches to solving the world problematique are augmented in this paper by a grassroots approach which may encourage the business corporation to evolve into an organic post-industrial form. This post-industrial model embodies two main concepts. One involves the development of social accounting frameworks that encourage the pursuit of social welfare rather than financial profit alone. Results are presented of a computer simulation of such a framework, called the “return on resources” model. The second concept suggests that systems of corporate governance be extended to form a corporate community composed of investors, employees, customers, the public and others involved in corporate affairs in order to facilitate collaborative policy making. These two complementary principles comprise a broader equivalent of free enterprise that provides more appropriate decision-making processes for post-industrial society. This post-industrial paradigm of corporate behavior is believed to be technically feasible, and trends suggest that its adoption is quite possible. The power of business corporations could thereby be transformed into a humanitarian force for achieving sustainable increases in human welfare.     

日本东北大地震对日本经济的影响及灾后重建问题分析

日本东北地区的特大地震所引起的海啸和核泄漏事故,给日本造成了巨大的人员伤亡和经济损失。灾难和损失几乎遍及日本的各个行业及大部分区域,其损失远大于1995年的阪神大地震。鉴于核电危机尚未得到最后解决,而灾后重建工作刚刚启动,现阶段不可能对大地震所造成的经济损失作出一个最后的准确评估。这次大地震对日本经济的恢复,将是一个严峻的考验。     

Output Variability and Economic Growth: the Japanese Case

We examine the empirical relationship between output variability and output growth using quarterly data for the 1961–2000 period for the Japanese economy. Using three different specifications of GARCH models, namely, Bollerslev's model, Taylor/Schwert's model, and Nelson's EGARCH model, we obtain two important results. First, we find robust evidence that the “in‐mean” coefficient is not statistically significant. This evidence is consistent with Speight's (1999) analysis of UK data and implies that output variability does not affect output growth. In other words, this finding supports several real business cycle theories of economic fluctuations. Second, we find no evidence of asymmetry between output variability and growth, a result consistent with Hamori (2000) .