The effect of mergers on employment and wages: Evidence from Japan

This study investigates the impact of mergers on employment and employees’ wages in Japan, based on 111 mergers between listed firms observed between 1990 and 2003. Typically, the number of employees decreases by 4.45% three years after a merger, even after changes in sales and other variables are controlled. Firms that experience related mergers, and rescue mergers are more likely to decrease the number of workers. At the same time, wages increase by 5.46% per employee. These results suggest that the main motivation behind mergers is not to divest employees of their wealth.     

Trade and the Crisis: Protect or Recover

<正>The pace of trade reforms waned from the mid-2000s as protectionist sentiment began to increase.With the onset of the global financial crisis,     

Do bank managers signal through cash flow statements?

We empirically examine the cash flow statements for Japanese banks and whether their managers engage in classification shifting to temper concerns about risk exposure. To create a buffer against liquidity shocks, they shift cash flows from investing and/or financing activities to operating activities. We also find robust evidence that classification shifting intensifies in higher risk situations. Although prior research on managerial discretion focuses on earning management, we are the first to show cash flow management to avoid sequential negative changes in operating cash flows. We show that these activities convey valuable information about changes in banks' risk exposure.     

A comparative study of the mode of domestic and transborder information flows including data

Information flow for point to point communications is carried by means of mail, telegram, telex. facsimile, telephone and data communications. The amount of information carried by these media was analyzed for Japanese and U.S. domestic communications, as well as for U.S.-Japan transpacific communications. The total domestic and international information flows are found to be closely related with the gross domestic product (GDP) and the gross international trade, respectively. The effects of technological innovation, service inauguration and regulatory events on the change of information flow are also found.     

On the trade,growth, and welfare effects of intellectual property rights protection

To examine how intellectual property rights protection affects trade, growth, and welfare, I develop a two-country R&D-based growth model in which final goods firms in both countries determine the range of imported varieties in the overall use of intermediate inputs. I show that strengthening patent protection in either country increases the range of imported varieties of intermediate goods and stimulates economic growth in the country that strengthened patent protection. Moreover, I also show that the Nash equilibrium level of patent protection is stronger than the globally optimal level of patent protection.     

Information asymmetry in small and medium enterprise credit guarantee schemes: evidence from Japan

In this article, we investigate whether there is adverse selection and/or moral hazard in credit guarantee schemes for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Japan. As credit guarantee corporations cannot distinguish low risk from risky borrowers, credit guarantee schemes typically attract a larger proportion of risky borrowers, which results in inefficient resource allocation. Using bank-level data, we analyse whether the default rate is positively associated with the ratio of guaranteed loans to total loans, and find that the data are consistent with an adverse selection and/or moral hazard hypothesis. Further analysis shows that the relationship is stronger for 100% coverage than for 80% coverage, indicating that the ‘20% self-payment’ requirement somewhat mitigates the problem, but not enough to eliminate it altogether.     

城市建成环境对鸟类多样性的影响机制研究评述及展望

城市化带来的环境变化是生物多样性的主要威胁,但城市同样也是生物多样性保护的热点地区。因此,分析和预测城市环境变化对生物多样性的影响对于维护城市生态系统服务,提升人类福祉至关重要。目前,越来越多的研究对城市建成环境进行了详细的分类,分别量化了各个城市特征对生物多样性水平的影响。然而,对影响城市内生物多样性水平的因素仍缺乏多尺度、全球性的分析。借助Web of Science和CNKI,对来自全球37个城市的111篇文献进行了建成环境下鸟类多样性研究方法和结果的系统性分析,并在归纳关键性城市建成环境要素的基础上,提出了以生物多样性为导向的建成环境优化策略,指出了鸟类多样性保护和城市可持续发展的未来方向。     

The demand for accounting information: young NASDAQ listings versus S&P 500 NYSE listings

The main purpose of this paper is to examine accounting information which can be of poor quality for some industries because uniform regulation applies to all. However, there is a strong demand for reliable accounting data even when the quality of the data is poor. Consistent with this premise, I show that among young NASDAQ listings the valuation coefficient on BVE is higher and that on earnings is not lower for intangible-intensive ventures than for other firms. I also show that GAAP OCF provides additional information that enhances the quality of earning information. This results in a shift in valuation weight from BVE to earnings for intangible-intensive young NASDAQ listings. However, these phenomena do not appear for intangible-intensive S&P 500 firms listed on NYSE. My results suggest that variations in the demand for reliable financial data affect the valuation coefficients on earnings and BVE.     

AN INDUSTRIOUS REVOLUTION IN AN EAST ASIAN MARKET ECONOMY? TOKUGAWA JAPAN AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE GREAT DIVERGENCE

This paper addresses a question raised by Jan de Vries' on the relationship between industriousness and the rise of the market in East Asia. Was the growing industriousness in Tokugawa Japan, as de Vries suggests, a substitute ‘for the absence of markets’? The examination refers to two versions of Chayanov's peasant farm model and their empirical relevance to the Tokugawa agrarian history, with special reference to the formation of labour‐intensive peasant farming (Akira Hayami's version of an industrious revolution), product specialisation, and the markets for production factors, land, and labour. Its implications for the Great Divergence debate are also discussed.