A Dynamic Volume–Return Relation and Investors' Positive Feedback Trading

With individual stocks, a larger increase in trading volume indicates a stronger short‐term return persistence. A reason for this short‐horizon ‘volume–return relation’ is that it can signal the existence of fundamental news, which can be gradually incorporated into stock price. In this study, we present another plausible explanation by considering investors' short‐term positive feedback trading. First, through empirical analysis, we show that the volume–return relation remains strong among stocks for which there is little fundamental news. Through a model‐based analysis, we demonstrate that positive feedback trading can cause this relation even when there is no news. Our findings raise the possibility that the short‐horizon volume–return relation is also caused by short‐term positive feedback trading.     

Activity of a 'Soft Science Group' in Mitsubishi Electric Corp.

‘Soft Science’ is defined by the Science and Technology Agency of the Japanese Government as a new methodology to forecast, plan. control and evaluate. This paper describes the activities of the Soft Science Group (SSG) which has been established in the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. SSG presently consists of 13 members and has issued in excess of 300 reports in 5 years. Its basic activities are concerned with setting new research themes, information exchange meetings, and work on specific projects involving also engineers seconded from operating divisions. The paper summarizes these activities and presents a case example of planning a new product which has already been developed and commercialized.     

Monetary Policy, Credit, and Real Activity: Evidence from the Balance Sheet of Japanese Firms

We analyze the mechanism of monetary transmission in the Japanese economy by using the quarterly time series data disaggregated by firm size. In particular we examine the channels through which monetary policy influences the firm's fixed investment with special focus on the firm's land. We estimate the vector autoregressive model where we encompass two competing hypotheses on the monetary transmission: monetary and credit channels. Our evidence is in support of the credit channel. We find that land has played a vital role in the monetary transmission, especially for small firms. Moreover, we find that fall of land value in 1990s weakened the efficacy of monetary policy considerably. J. Japan. Int. Econ., December 2000, 14(4), pp. 385–407. Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan Copyright 2000 Academic Press.Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: E22, E32, E44, E51.     

Stochastic optimal growth with nonconvexities

This paper studies optimal investment and dynamic behavior in stochastically growing economies. We assume neither convex technology nor bounded support of the productivity shocks. A number of basic results concerning the investment policy and the Ramsey–Euler equation are established. We also prove a fundamental dichotomy pertaining to optimal growth models perturbed by standard econometric shocks: either an economy is globally stable or it is globally collapsing to the origin.     

六西格玛管理活动中领导的重要性

序言 众所周知,企业或组织的高层领导（Champion）在企业推进六西格玛活动中起到非常重要的作用。首先,组织的高层领导要明确企业或组织的目标,并将为了实现这些目标而要完成的重要课题（CTQ．Critical to Quality）进行分解,与资深黑带（Master Black Belt）和黑带（Black Belt）一起制定CTQ的向下分解树型图（CTQ-Drill Down Tree）。