Pitfalls in Measuring Exchange Rate Misalignment

We evaluate whether the Renminbi (RMB) is misaligned, relying upon conventional statistical methods of inference. A framework built around the relationship between relative price and relative output levels is used. We find that, once sampling uncertainty and serial correlation are accounted for, there is little statistical evidence that the RMB is undervalued, even though the usual regression point estimates indicate substantial misalignment. The result is robust to various choices of country samples and sample periods, as well as to the inclusion of control variables. We then update the results using the latest vintage of the data to demonstrate how fragile the results are. We find that whatever misalignment we detected in our previous work disappears in this data set.

An Investigation into the Positive Effect of an Educated Wife on Her Husband’s Earnings: The Case of Japan in the Period between 2000 and 2003

We analyze the effect of a wife??s human capital on her husband??s earnings, using individual-level data for Japan in the period 2000?C2003. We find a positive association between a wife??s education and her husband??s earnings, which can be attributed to the assortative mating effect as well as the positive effect of an educated wife on her husband??s productivity. We divide the sample into those couples with non-working wives and those with working wives, and also employ an estimation strategy proposed by Jepsen (Review of Economics of the Household 3:197?C214, 2005), attempting to control for the assortative mating effect. Our regression analysis provides suggestive evidence that educated wives increase their husbands?? productivity and earnings only when they are non-workers and have sufficient time to support their husbands.     

Vulnerability of households to health shocks: an Indonesian study

We examine the effect of illness and injury shocks on work hours and household consumption in Indonesia. Using indices of activities of daily living to measure health shocks, we find that both labour hours and household consumption are influenced by health shocks to household heads. Further, farm households seem to be more seriously affected than non-farm households by health shocks. However, the magnitude of the health effect on household consumption is small, implying that even farm households are well protected on average by the presence of formal and informal risk-coping mechanisms.     

Trust in government and its effect on preferences for income redistribution and perceived tax burden

This paper explores how trust in government shared by neighbors is associated with individual preferences for income redistribution and individual perceptions regarding income tax burden. Using individual-level data from Japan, a nation with shared homogenous racial and cultural backgrounds, this paper controls for unobservable heterogeneity among Japan’s population, thus reducing estimation bias. Three measures for trust in government are used: “trust in ministries and government agencies”, “trust in diet members”, and “trust in members of municipal councils”. After controlling for individual characteristics, the key findings are: (1) people are more likely to express preferences for income redistribution when trust in government in their residential area is high; (2) people are more likely to perceive their tax burden as low when trust in government in their residential area is high; and (3) when the sample is divided into people with above average income and those with below average income, these results are only clearly observed for people with above average income and not those with below average income.     

Business Ethics in Brazil and the U.S.: A Comparative Investigation

In this comparative survey of 126 Brazilian and U.S. business professionals, we explore the effect of national culture on ethical decision-making within the context of business. Using Reidenbach and Robin's (1988) multi-criteria ethics instrument, we examined how these two countries' differences on Hofstede's individualism/collectivism dimension are related to the manner in which business practitioners make ethical decisions. Our results indicate that Brazilians and Americans evaluate the ethical content of actions or decisions differently when applying utilitarian criteria. By contrast, business people from both countries do not differ significantly when they use egoistic criteria in evaluating the ethical nature of business decisions.     

Economic Education in Japan at the Precollege Level

The emphasis in teaching economics in Japan at this level is upon real-life situations rather than upon concepts and generalities, according to the author. The actual content as outlined, however, does not seem to differ all that much from the curriculum we are familiar with in the United States.     

The Impact of Natural Disasters on Income Inequality: Analysis using Panel Data during the Period 1970 to 2004

Although natural disasters have been found to influence economic growth, their impact on income inequality has not yet been explored. This paper uses cross-country panel data during the period 1965 to 2004 to examine how the occurrence of natural disasters has affected income inequality. The major findings of this study are that although natural disasters have increased income inequality in the short (5 years) term, this effect disappears in the long term (10 years). These findings are observed even after the fixed effects of year and country are controlled for.     

Natural Disasters and Participation in Volunteer Activities: A Case Study of the Great Hanshin‐Awaji Earthquake

The Great Hanshin‐Awaji (Kobe) earthquake in 1995 has had a significant detrimental effect on the economic conditions of southern‐central Japan. However, the earthquake also led people to acknowledge the importance of the many volunteer activities in Japan at that time. Using a large sample of individual‐level data from 1991 and 1996, this study investigates how and the extent to which the earthquake increased the participation of students and house‐workers in volunteer activities. After controlling for various individual characteristics, a Heckman‐Tobit model was used and the following key findings were obtained: (1) the probability of students’ participating in volunteer activities was 2% higher after the earthquake than before, and (2) the number of days that students spent participating in volunteer activities was 4.38 days longer after the earthquake than before. However, the same did not hold true for house‐workers.     

Modeling crime in Japan

This study aims at identifying the factors of aggregate and disaggregate crime categories in Japan over the period 1964–2009. All crime categories are related to police outlays, police numbers, unemployment, divorce and urbanization rates. Bounds testing approach to cointegration is implemented to test the existence of a long-run relationship amongst the variables. Cointegration analysis yields that the main deterrent effect on crime is the police presence and this factor is further confirmed by the real police outlays. As for the essential cause of crime, urbanization stands as the leading factor which is followed by divorce and unemployment rates. Policy implications are discussed.