Managerialism revisited in the light of bargaining-game theory

This lecture proposes to view the modern firm as a coalition of shareholders, employees, and business partners, rather than to identify it with a single maximizer such as an entrepreneur. This view may be thought of as a revival of the original thought of managerialism, but tries to go further by analyzing implications of the interactions of those agents on the behavior of the firm in a bargaining-game theoretic framework. The lecture reviews the literature on game theoretic approaches to the theory of the firm, and discusses a few important theoretical and institutional issues.     

Whither Japanese keiretsu? The transformation of vertical keiretsu in Toyota,Nissan and Honda 1991–2011

Drawing on institutional theory, this paper discusses the transformation of vertical keiretsu in the Japanese automotive industry from 1991 to 2011. By investigating the cases of Toyota, Nissan, and Honda, the paper empirically contributes to the debate on whither the Japanese economy is heading. Long-standing relationships to suppliers and exclusiveness have changed significantly in Nissan, while remaining stable in Toyota and Honda. New competition-based elements and more open support systems have been added to earlier governance mechanisms such as power and anshin (security). We argue that the studied keiretsu since the 1990s follows diverse and complex trajectories of hybridization, and we suggest that the Japanese economy is developing similarly.     

The association between smoking cessation outpatient visits and total medical costs: a retrospective,observational analysis of Japanese employee-based public health insurance data

Aims: The short-term effects of smoking cessation (SC) on overall healthcare costs are unclear. This study aimed to compare the short-term medical costs between patients with SC outpatient visits (SCOVs) and those without SCOVs, consisting of SCOV itself and overall medical costs.

Materials and methods: This study is a retrospective, observational study using a Japanese employee-based health insurance claims database (January 1, 2005–December 31, 2013). It analyzed individuals who were registered as smokers based on their medical checkup details. It compared the per-patient-per-year (PPPY) medical costs for male smokers who made ≥1 claim for SCOVs with those who made no claims. We also assessed whether the number of SCOVs by male and female smokers impacted medical costs. The Index Year was the year after the first SCOV claim and that after the first registration as a smoker (non-SCOV group). Medical costs were calculated using regression analysis and adjusted for baseline costs.

Results: In Index Year ?1, PPPY medical costs for male smokers were ～USD 323.01 (JPY 36,500, as of November 2017) higher in the SCOV (n?=?5,608) vs the non-SCOV (n?=?81,721) group; however, by Year 6 the costs were similar. From Year 4–6, PPPY medical costs for SCOVs were lower than those in the adjusted non-SCOV group. For 2,576 male and female smokers in the SCOV group, the average rates of increasing medical costs before and after the SCOV for 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 SCOVs made were 58%, 44%, 50%, 41%, and 34%, respectively.

Limitations: The database includes limited data on individuals >65 years. Only SCOVs based on claims data and not on other outcomes were assessed.

Conclusions: Medical costs declined in the short-term following the first SCOV. Attendance at a greater number of SCOVs was associated with a lower increase ratio of medical costs.     

Examining the association of smoking with work productivity and associated costs in Japan

Aims: Smoking is associated with significant health and economic burden globally, including an increased risk of many leading causes of mortality and significant impairments in work productivity. This burden is attenuated by successful tobacco cessation, including reduced risk of disease and improved productivity. The current study aimed to show the benefits of smoking cessation for workplace productivity and decreased costs associated with loss of work impairment.

Materials and methods: The data source was the 2011 Japan National Health and Wellness Survey (n?=?30,000). Respondents aged 20–64 were used in the analyses (n?=?23,738) and were categorized into: current smokers, former smokers, and never smokers. Generalized linear models controlling for demographics and health characteristics examined the relationship of smoking status with the Work Productivity and Activity Impairment questionnaire (WPAI-GH) endpoints, as well as estimated indirect costs.

Results: Current smokers reported the greatest overall work impairment, including absenteeism (i.e. work time missed) and presenteeism (i.e. impairment while at work); however, after controlling for covariates, there were no significant differences between former smokers and never smokers on overall work impairment. Current smokers and former smokers had greater activity impairment (i.e. impairment in daily activities) than never smokers. Current smokers reported the highest indirect costs (i.e. costs associated with work impairment); however, after controlling for covariates, there were no significant differences between former smokers and never smokers on indirect costs.

Limitations and conclusions: Smoking exerts a large health and economic burden; however, smoking cessation attenuates this burden. The current study provides important further evidence of this association, with former smokers appearing statistically indistinguishable from never smokers in terms of work productivity loss and associated indirect costs among a large representative sample of Japanese workers. This report highlights the workplace benefits of smoking cessation across productivity markers and cost-savings.     

洛阳“一五”时期苏式住宅街坊考察与改造探索

以洛阳"一五"时期建造的苏式住宅为研究对象,阐述了其建造的历史,分析了整体的建筑风格特色,并对其现状进行调查研究,探讨了典型街坊改造更新的措施和方法,力求平衡历史街区的保护与社会经济发展,使历史遗产得以永续保存。     

Extended social ordering functions for rationalizing fair allocation rules as game forms in the sense of Rawls and Sen

We examine the possibility of constructing social ordering functions, each of which associates a social ordering over the feasible pairs of allocations and allocation rules with each simple production economy. Three axioms on the admissible class of social ordering functions are introduced, which embody the values of procedural fairness, non-welfaristic egalitarianism, and welfaristic consequentialism, respectively. The logical compatibility of these axioms and their lexicographic combinations subject to constraints are examined. Two social ordering functions that give priority to procedural values rather than to consequential values are identified. These two can uniformly rationalize a nice allocation rule in terms of the values of procedural fairness, non-welfaristic egalitarianism, and Pareto efficiency.     

Risk assessment of the flavonoids,quercetin as an endocrine modifier

Flavonoids are constituents of a wide variety of plants and are consumed in vegetables, fruits and certain medicines. They display a dual character with respect to their pharmacological effects and potential toxicity. Recent studies have demonstrated that the flavonoid, quercetin promotes estradiol-induced tumorigenesis by elevating the level of its oestrogen metabolite. Flavonoids have been also characterized as a type of environmental oestrogen. In the present study, we evaluated whether quercetin is a potential carcinogen by consideration of its oestrogenic characteristics, as described in various reports. A complete database review of flavonoids including quercetin revealed that quercetin is only mutagenic in bacterial testing systems and is a weak carcinogenic in rodents, but there has been little evidence that quercetin is tumour-inducing in humans. National Toxicology Program (1992) showed that the nonobserved adverse effect level (NOAEL) is to be less than 416 mg kg^-1 body weight day^-1 for inducing renal tumours in rats. In a study of male hamsters, it has been found that when co-administrated with estradiol, quercetin had a NOAEL of 300 mg kg^-1 day^-1 corresponding to 0.3% of the diet and contributed to the development of estradiol-induced renal tumours in these animals. By employing a 200-fold safety factor to compensate for interspecies variation, intraspecies variation and pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics variation, the acceptable daily intake (ADI) was estimated to be 1.5 mg kg^-1 day^-1. It was concluded that the average daily intake of quercetin exceeds this ADI value, suggesting that the risk of developing cancer from this flavonoid is not negligible given the wide exposure to quercetin in our daily life.     

A note on the stability of the interaction of monetary policies

This note presents further sufficient conditions for stability of monetary actions interconnected with nations' fixed exchange rates. The conditions enable one to infer qualitative effects on the stability of the degree of integration and of the sterilization coefficients adopted by individual monetary authorities.     

Modeling Impact of Development Trajectories and a Global Agreement on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation on Congo Basin Forests by 2030

The Congo Basin encompasses the second largest rainforest area after the Amazon but the Congo Basin rainforest has been more preserved during the last decades with a much lower deforestation rate. At the same time, the region remains one of the least developed in the world. We use the partial equilibrium model GLOBIOM for the global agricultural, forestry and bioenergy sectors that seeks to find optimal land use options by spatially representing land qualities. We show the trade-offs between achieving agricultural growth at the expense of forests and protecting forests at the expense of agriculture development in the Congo Basin. The realization of the transportation infrastructures, which are already planned and funded, could multiply deforestation by three. In contrast, a global agreement on reduction of total emissions from deforestation could achieve important cuts in GHG emissions from deforestation in the Congo Basin. However, it could lead to substantial increases in food imports and food prices, which are in contradiction with the food security objectives.