Japanese management theories and Japanese criticisms

Criticisms of theories of Japanese management abound in Japan but are little known or available in the west. The author highlights some of the prevailing discussions on various employment and organizational practices and, through a cultural history of the Japanese people, illustrates how it should not be assumed that management practices are directly transferable to the west.     

Numerical Approach to Asset Pricing Models with Stochastic Differential Utility

In this paper employing two heuristic numerical schemes, we study the asset pricing models with stochastic differential utility (SDU), which is formulated by either of backward stochastic differential equations (BSDEs) or forward-backward stochastic differential equations (FBSDEs).The first scheme is based upon a traditional lattice algorithm of option pricing theories, involving the discretization scheme of coupled FBSDEs, which is combined with a technique of solving numerically a certain type of nonlinear equations with respect to the backward state variables. The second one is based upon the four step scheme of Ma et al. (1994) which solves quasi-linear partial differential equations associated with the FBSDEs. We demonstrate that our practical implementation algorithms can successfully solve the asset pricing models with generalized SDU and the large investor problem with market impact which are typical examples such that the usual four step scheme is difficult to implement. As other numerical applications we study the optimal consumption and investment policies of a representative agent with SDU, and the recoverability of preferences and beliefs from observed consumption data.     

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.     

New management dimensions in international business

Changing international business management situations generate new practices, methods, and concepts which are not sufficiently dealt with in management theories and training materials. This article highlights some of them with concrete examples.     

DOES CORESIDENCE IMPROVE AN ELDERLY PARENT'S HEALTH?

It is generally believed that intergenerational coresidence by elderly parents and adult children provides old‐age security for parents. Although such coresidence is still the most common living arrangement in many countries, empirical evidence of its benefits to parental health is scarce. Using Indonesian data and a program evaluation technique that accounts for non‐random selection and heterogeneous treatment effect, we find robust evidence of a negative coresidence effect. We also find heterogeneity in the coresidence effect. Socially active elderly parents are less likely to be in coresidence, and when they do live with a child they experience a better coresidence effect. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Industrial Organization of Financial Markets in Thailand

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the industrial organizational features of the financial markets in Thailand which may play an important role in promoting the recent high economic growth. Specifically, we examine whether or not the market-structure-performance hypothesis is valid by estimating profit and cost functions. The main results are as follows:
1) market concentration in Thailand is higher than in Japan;
2) expense rate of Thai commercial banks is considerably higher than Japanese banks;
3) economies of scale are not found;
4) the more concentrated the market is, the larger are the profits and costs of the commercial banks.     

Economic Regulation in the Consumer Loans Market

Atlantic Economic Journal - This paper models a consumer loan market with a vertical structure where an upstream monopolist supplies funds to downstream nonbanks. The nonbanks supply funds to...