大学生日语学习焦虑和交流意愿缺失的关系研究

采用外语焦虑量表和交流意愿缺失量表进行调查表明,大三学生的日语焦虑水平明显高于大二学生;接近-回避型和回报型的交流意愿缺失是日语焦虑的重要预测变量。就第二外语学习而言,日语焦虑辅导的需求时段和切入时机是大一和大三,其中大三是日语焦虑辅导的重点时期,大三学生是重点辅导人群,调节交流意愿缺失程度是干预日语焦虑水平的重要途径,男生的调节任务重于女生。     

A Structural Decomposition of Energy Consumption Based on a Hybrid Rectangular Input-Output Framework: Japan's Case

This paper proposes an I-O SDA model, based on a commodity technology assumption, to identify the sources of changes in the energy demand structure, the non-energy input structure, the non-energy product-mix and the non-energy final demand of embodied energy requirements. The model contains two features. First, the hybrid rectangular input-output framework expressed in both monetary and physical terms is introduced to relax the effects of different energy prices among industrial sectors on the input structure in physical terms. Second, the demand structure of the input-output system is decomposed into the structure of energy sectors and other sectors by applying the hierarchy system with feedback loops of non-energy sectors. We identify the sources of the changes in Japan's energy use structure between 1985 and 1990. The major findings are that the total energy requirement has increased, mainly because of the changes in the non-energy final demand, while the product-mix changes have opposite effects, that is, energy savings.     

The productivity effects of the liberalization of Japanese telecommunication policy

In the early 1980s, the Japanese government decided to pursue policies of liberalization that opened Japan's telecommunication market to competition and moved toward the privatization of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), the dominant domestic telecommunication service provider. The purpose of this paper is to assess the effects of liberalization on the productive performance of NTT. To assess the productive consequences of liberalization, we first provide basic productivity measures for NTT. The Total Factor Productivity (TFP) measures are then decomposed to separate out the effects of liberalization from other factors such as scale, technology, and capacity utilization. The TFP decomposition is based on the parameter estimates of a dynamic cost model.During the 1958–87 period, NTT's TFP level increased at an average annual rate of 3.4%. However, TFP improved at a significantly faster rate following the decision to adopt policies of liberalization. The NTT's average annual TFP growth rate was 5.12% for the 1982–87 period as compared to a 0.26% per year growth rate for the previous five year (1977–82) period. The decomposition of TFP growth appears to indicate that liberalization was a major source of productivity improvement for NTT.     

Does the version of the Penn World Tables matter? An analysis of the relationship between growth and volatility

Abstract .  The Penn World Tables (PWT) are an important data source for cross-country comparisons in economics. The PWT have undergone several revisions over time. This paper documents how countries' output growth rates change across four publicly available versions of the PWT. We show that for some countries the magnitude of the differences is significant and/or the sign of the growth rates changes across versions. Using as an example Ramey and Ramey (1995) , who found growth volatility has a significant negative effect on growth, we demonstrate that conclusions based on one version of the PWT may not hold under another version.     

Japanese Manufacturing Strategy Competing with the Tigers

The rapid growth of the Asian "Tiger" economies and a future of increasing competition from China have long threatened the Japanese economy. What strategies were available to the Japanese to counter these threats? Taking a fifty-year perspective, this article exposes the foundations of the Japanese response - which includes outsourcing production overseas. The author puts the view that Japan "should positively support" the growth of the Asian Tigers: "based on the growth of the Asian Tigers, Japan should also grow". The depth of Japan's applied engineering skills is seen as the basis for a strategy for achieving this combination.