A model of merchants

I propose a simple model of merchants who are specialized in buying and selling a homogeneous good. Facing the same frictions as in the buyer-seller direct trades, merchants can make profits with an ability to buy and sell many units of the good. They set the price to compete in the market and provide buyers with a strong likelihood of obtaining the good. This paper establishes a turnover equilibrium where some agents choose to become merchants endogenously. An interesting multiplicity can emerge.     

Altruism as a motive for intergenerational transfers

This study investigates the role of altruism as a motive for transfer payments. In the existing literature on altruism, it is generally assumed that a transfer payment is made out of altruism that a transferor feels towards a transferee. This study demonstrates that this is not necessarily the case. By using a dynamic model in which children are altruistic towards parents, it demonstrates that such altruism may induce a parent to give a transfer to children.     

Are regional asymmetries detrimental to tax coordination in a repeated game setting?

This paper reexamines the main findings of Cardarelli et al. [Cardarelli, R., Taugourdeau, E., Vidal, J.-P., 2002. A repeated interactions model of tax competition, Journal of Public Economic Theory 4, 19-38], and Catenaro and Vidal [Catenaro, M., Vidal, J.-P., 2006. Implicit tax co-ordination under repeated policy interactions, Recherches Economiques de Louvain 72, 1-17], who show that regional asymmetries undermine the implicit collusion of tax coordination in a repeated game model of capital tax competition. In particular, this paper investigates how increased regional differences in per capita capital endowments and/or production technologies affect the willingness of each region to cooperate in achieving tax coordination. It is shown that there may exist cases where as regional asymmetries in net capital exporting positions increase, regions are more likely to cooperate on capital taxes and thereby achieve tax coordination.     

Learning-Oriented Sales Management Control: The Case of a Pharmaceutical Company

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The primary goal was to identify organizational conditions for developing a learning-oriented behavioral control system, an issue that has been neglected in previous studies.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The authors conducted a case study of Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim (NBI).

Findings: We found that a behavior-based sales management control system facilitates learning by salespersons when 1) the focus is on skill development, 2) fewer key performance indicators are being used, and 3) supportive supervision and knowledge sharing are promoted.

Research Limitations: Because this was a single case study, it is necessary to investigate other cases in other countries and to compare the results with those of NBI to develop theories about learning-oriented behavior control systems.

Practical Implications: In the early stages of sales reform, sales managers and medical representatives should not use multiple process indicators for multiple evaluations; rather, they should use a small number of process indicators (e.g., number of visits per day) so that all individuals concerned about a problem can share information and promote improvement.     

Effect of Exchange Rates and Gasoline Prices on US Imports of Japanese Automobiles

We analyze the effects of gasoline prices and exchange rates on Japanese automobile imports to the United States between 1970 and 2004. We test the relationships before, during, and after the Voluntary Restraint Agreement placed on Japanese imports between 1981 and 1988. We also control for general demand for automobiles and domestically manufactured Japanese vehicles. As expected, we found that demand for Japanese imports is positively correlated with the price of gasoline. Before 1988 the demand for Japanese imports contributed to a strengthening of the yen. But after, a positive relationship between the yen-for-dollar exchange rate and imports has prevailed.     

BUSINESS CYCLES IN THE EQUILIBRIUM MODEL OF LABOR MARKET SEARCH AND SELF‐INSURANCE*

I introduce risk‐aversion, labor‐leisure choice, capital, individual productivity shocks, and market incompleteness to the standard model of labor search and matching and investigate the model’s cyclical properties. I find that the model can generate the observed large volatility of unemployment and vacancies with a reasonable replacement rate of unemployment insurance benefits of 64%. Labor‐leisure choice plays a crucial role through additional utility from leisure when unemployed and further amplification from adjustments of hours worked. On the other hand, the borrowing constraint or individual productivity shocks do not significantly affect the cyclical properties of unemployment and vacancies.     

Continuity and Change in the Employment and Promotion of Japanese White-Collar Employees: The Case of the House of Mitsui

Lifetime employment is one of the most conspicuous featuresof contemporary large Japanese corporations. The employmentpractices of merchant houses in the Edo period (1603–1868)are sometimes proposed as one origin of such lifetime commitment.Little attention has been paid, however, to the connectionsbetween long-term employment in the Edo period and its practicein the twentieth century. This article examines how Edo employmentpractices were adapted to the environment of the early twentiethcentury within a new context of modern educational institutionsand the need for professional managers.     

Multivariate multistage methodologies for simultaneous all pairwise comparisons

We consider the problem of constructing simultaneous fixed-width confidence intervals for all pairwise treatment differences μ₁−μ _J , in the presence ofk(≥2) independent populationsN _p (μ₁,Σ), 1≤i≠j≤k. Appropriate purely sequential, accelerated sequential and three-stage sampling strategies have been developed and variousfirst-order asymptotic properties are then derived when Σ _pxp is completely unknown, but positive definite (p.d.). In the two special cases when the largest component variance in Σ is a known multiple of one of the variances or Σ=σ² H where σ(>0) is unknown, butH _pxp is known and p.d., the original multistage sampling strategies are specialized. Under such special circumstances, associatedsecond-order characteristics are then developed. It is to be noted that our present formulation and the methodologies fill important voids in the context of multivariate multiple comparisons which is a challenging area that has not yet been fully explored. Moderate sample performances of the proposed techniques were very encouraging and detailed remarks on these were included in Mukhopadhyay and Aoshima (1997).     

Coexistence of large firms and less efficient small firms under price competition with free entry

This study constructs a game of technology selection and Bertrand-like price competition in a market with free entry. It demonstrates the existence of a Nash equilibrium in which a small number of firms adopting a large-scale technology coexist with, and charge a lower price than, a large number of firms adopting a small-scale technology. In this equilibrium, both available technologies and resources are allocated efficiently. This result provides a new economic rationale for antitrust law in general and, in particular, the US Sherman Act, wchich regards free entry and price competition as of foremost importance for maintaining market quality.