Government Size and Trust

This paper uses individual level data from the Japanese General Social Survey to examine how government size influences generalized trust. After controlling for the endogeneity of government size using instrumental variables, I found: (1) using all samples, government size is not associated with generalized trust, and (2) after splitting the sample into workers and non-workers, government size does not influence generalized trust for non-workers, whereas it significantly reduces generalized trust for workers. This suggests that workers, through their work experience, might have to face greater bureaucratic red tape coming from “larger government,” leading to negative externality effects on relationships of trust in the labor market.     

Effect of Linguistic Heterogeneity on Technology Transfer: An Economic Study of FIFA Football Rankings

This paper used Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) world ranking points data to examine how linguistic heterogeneity has an impact on technology transfer from the most developed countries. The major findings were that the learning effect from the most developed countries on team performance is larger for developing countries than for developed ones and that linguistic heterogeneity has a detrimental effect on technology transfer for developed, but not developing countries. The results presented here are interpreted to imply that the importance of common and proper comprehension of team strategy among members, which improves team performance but is hampered by linguistic heterogeneity, depends on the stage of development.     

How Do Neighbors Influence Investment in Social Capital? Homeownership and Length of Residence

This paper uses individual data from Japan to explore how the circumstances of where a person resides is related to the degree of their investment in social capital. Controlling for unobserved area-specific fixed effects and various individual characteristics, I found (1) not only that homeownership and length of residence are positively related to investment in social capital, but also that rates of homeownership and long-time residency in a locality increase an individual’s investments in social capital. Also, (2) the effects of local neighborhood homeownership and local length of residence are distinctly larger than those of an individual’s homeownership or length of residence.     

The effect of learning varies according to locality: Micro data analysis of the lawyer market in Japan

Using individual level data, this paper examines how and to what extent the behavior and perception of those bringing lawsuits differ between large district courts (competitive lawyer market) and medium or small district ones (less competitive lawyer markets). The major findings are: (1) in medium and small, but not large districts, trial experience discourages people from employing a lawyer. (2) A natural person is less likely to employ a lawyer than a legal entity in medium and small districts, but not in large ones. (3) The self-rated cost of searching for a lawyer is lower in large districts than small ones. It follows from these results that the lower competitive pressure in the lawyer markets in medium and small districts results in higher costs to employ a lawyer than is found in large districts.     

A simple panel stationarity test in the presence of serial correlation and a common factor

This paper develops a simple test à la Pesaran (2007) for the null hypothesis of stationarity in heterogeneous panel data with cross-sectional dependence in the form of a common factor in the disturbance. We also allow for serial correlation.     

Time path in innovation, imitation, and growth: the case of the motorcycle industry in postwar Japan

This study attempts to explore how an industry evolves over time based on a case study of the motorcycle industry in Japan from 1948 to 1964. Using individual firm data, we estimate the determinants of technology improvement and firm growth separately for different development phases, after controlling for the probability of firm survival. We find that the industrys rapid growth in the early phase can be explained by massive entry and the imitation of simple technologies, whereas sustained growth in later phases can be explained by innovations and subsequent imitations, as well as the exit of inefficient firms.JEL Classification: O14, L10, L62, N65 Correspondence to: Tetsushi SonobeWe are grateful to Kotaro Horiuchi, Shunji Tanaka, Katsuaki Nishino, Michael Kevane, Uwe Cantner, and two anonymous referees for their helpful comments and suggestions.     

Stabilization of effective exchange rates under common currency basket systems

We investigate the extent to which a common currency basket peg would stabilize effective exchange rates of East Asian currencies. We use an AMU (Asian Monetary Unit), which is a weighted average of ASEAN10 plus 3 (Japan, China, and Korea) currencies, as a common currency basket to investigate the stabilization effects. We compare our results with another result on stabilization effects of the common G3 currency (the US dollar, the Japanese yen, and the euro) basket in the East Asian countries [Williamson, J., 2005, A currency basket for East Asia, not just China. In: Policy Briefs in International Economics, No. PB05-1. Institute for International Economics]. We obtained the following results: first, the AMU peg system would be more effective in reducing fluctuations of the effective exchange rates of East Asian currencies as a number of countries applied the AMU peg system increases in East Asia. Second, the AMU peg system would more effectively stabilize the effective exchange rates than a common G3 currency basket peg system for four (Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand) of the seven countries. The results suggest that the AMU peg system would be useful for the East Asian countries whose trade weights on Japan are relatively higher than others. J. Japanese Int. Economies 20 (4) (2006) 590–611.     

Detection of Structural Change in the Long‐run Persistence in a Univariate Time Series*

In this paper, we investigate a test for structural change in the long‐run persistence in a univariate time series. Our model has a unit root with no structural change under the null hypothesis, while under the alternative it changes from a unit‐root process to a stationary one or vice versa. We propose a Lagrange multiplier‐type test, a test with the quasi‐differencing method, and ‘demeaned versions’ of these tests. We find that the demeaned versions of these tests have better finite‐sample properties, although they are not necessarily superior in asymptotics to the other tests.