Bubbles,growth and imperfection of credit market in a two-country model

This study extends Hirano and Yanagawa (Rev Econ Stud 84(1):406–443, 2017) to an asymmetric two-country model and examines bubbles effects on each country’s long-run economic growth rate. This study also provides numerical examples with respect to the relationship between each country’s growth rate and their financial frictions in the balanced growth equilibria with bubbles and without bubbles. It shows that foreign bubbles have positive and negative effects on both countries’ growth rates, and which effect dominates depends on the level of financial development in both countries. In this study, the positive effect of bubbles tends to dominate when the total level of financial frictions in both countries is relatively low. When the total effect of bubbles on the growth rate is positive, the burst of foreign bubbles leads to a decrease in the growth rate in both countries. This implies that there is a positive correlation between foreign bubbles and the domestic as well as the foreign country’s growth rate.     

Preemption,leverage, and financing constraints

This paper investigates the interactions between preemptive competition and leverage in a duopoly market. We investigate both a case in which the firms have optimal financial structures, and a case in which financing constraints require firms to finance their investments by debt. Our findings are that the second mover always leaves the duopoly market before the leader, although the leader may exit before the follower's entry. The leverage effects of debt financing can increase the value of a firm and accelerate investment, even in the presence of preemptive competition. Notably, financing constraints can delay preemptive investment and improve firm values in preemptive equilibrium. Indeed, the leader's high leverage due to financing constraints can lower the first-mover advantage and weaken preemptive competition. Especially with strong first-mover advantage, the financing constraint effects can dominate the leverage effects. These findings are almost consistent with the empirical evidence, which shows that high leverage leads to competitive disadvantage and mitigates product market competition.     

Bayesian potentials and information structures: Team decision problems revisited

This paper proposes the use of Bayesian potential games as models of informationally decentralized organizations. Applying techniques in team decision problems by Radner (1962) , this paper characterizes Bayesian Nash equilibria in terms of Bayesian potentials and demonstrates using examples that Bayesian potentials are useful tools for studying the efficient use of information in organizations.     

The impact of retirement on household consumption in Japan

Using monthly data from the Japanese Family Income and Expenditure Survey, we examine the impact of retirement on household consumption. We find little evidence of an immediate change in consumption at retirement, on average, in Japan. However, we find a decrease in consumption at retirement for low income households that is concentrated in food and work-related consumption. The availability of substantial retirement bonuses to a large share of Japanese retirees may help smooth consumption at retirement. We find that those households that are more likely to receive such bonuses experience a short-run consumption increase at retirement. However, among households that are less likely to receive a retirement bonus, we find that consumption decreases at retirement.     

The relationship between pollution abatement costs and environmental regulation: Evidence from the Chinese industrial sector

Since the 2000s, China has been trying to strengthen emission controls in response to increasing pollution problems. However, strict implementation of emission controls generates pollution abatement costs. Using regional data for 29 provinces in the Chinese industrial sector from 1995 to 2010, this study estimated the pollution abatement costs for each province through the measurement of environmental efficiency, by applying a directional distance function approach. Moreover, using panel data analysis, this study clarified whether there is a nonlinear relationship between pollution abatement costs and environmental regulations. The empirical results are as follows. The study confirmed that the burden of abatement costs tended not only to occur in the central and western regions but also to increase in the eastern region. Moreover, the nonlinear relationship is inverted U‐shaped; thus, pollution abatement costs increase, as a negative effect of environmental regulations, until a certain inflection point, after which they decrease.     

Reorganization strategies and securities valuation under asymmetric information

This paper examines optimal reorganization strategies during financial distress and securities valuation under asymmetric information. We model strategic interactions between debtholders and equityholders in a game-theoretic setting that can accommodate the varying bargaining powers of the two claimants. Two reorganization strategies are considered: Chapter 11 (debt–equity swap) and private workout (strategic debt service). Using Chapter 11 as a costly state verification device, we characterize in equilibrium which firms choose Chapter 11 and which choose private workout. In particular, we show how the bank's belief about the type of firm evolves by observation of reorganization strategies. We also derive closed-form solutions to both the equity and debt valuation problems under asymmetric information and show that credit spreads increase with the degrees of asymmetric information.     

MODELS OF COMPETITION BETWEEN FIRMS: ENDOGENOUS MARKET STRUCTURE IN THE KALECKIAN MODEL

The purpose of this paper is to incorporate free entry into the Kaleckian model. To this end, we consider a model with monopolistic competition, mark‐up pricing and a free‐entry condition. Using this model, the Kaleckian model is unstable under a wage‐led growth regime, and it is stable under a profit‐led growth regime, when the interest rate is supposed to be constant. Stability under a wage‐led growth can be achieved if the interest rate is allowed to respond positively to capacity utilization. We also find that a goods market policy, but not an income distribution policy, is then effective from an economic growth perspective.     

Ricardo on machinery: a dynamic analysis

I construct a dynamic two-sector model which formalizes Ricardo's argument on the effects of the introduction of machinery. My model does not require the inappropriate assumptions common to other Ricardian models. Using this model, I show that if machinery is introduced, both the demand for labour and the output of the consumption good must decline temporarily and can then recover. As well, the temporal decline of value of the gross produce is not a necessary condition for the above temporal decline of the demand for labour.