Evaluating shifts in Japan's quality-of-life

This paper presents a Data Envelopment Analysis/Malmquist index (DEA/MI) analysis of the change in quality-of-life (QOL), which is defined as the state of a social system as measured by multiple social-indicators. Applying panel data from Japan's 47 prefectures for the period 1975–2002, we identify significant movement in the country's overall QOL using a “cumulative” frontier shift index. Results suggest that Japan's QOL rose during the so-called “bubble economy years” (second half of the 1980s), and then dropped in the succeeding “lost-decade” (1990s). We also identify those prefectures considered most “responsible” for the shift(s) in QOL. Moreover, the use of both upper- and lower-bound DEAs enabled an evaluation of both “good” and “bad” movements in QOL.     

Conservation Auctions and Compliance: Theory and Evidence from Laboratory Experiments

Many agri-environmental conservation programs are faced with the problem of imperfect monitoring. This provides farmers with an incentive for noncompliance, because they can receive subsidies without implementing the conservation scheme. In this paper, bidding behavior and auction performance are compared for discriminatory-price and uniform-price auctions in an imperfect monitoring environment. Our theoretical analysis suggests that auction performances are equalized between the discriminatory-price and uniform-price auctions. However, laboratory experiments reveal that, although the discriminatory-price auction has an advantage in terms of reducing policy costs, it is more likely to cause adverse selection. As a result, the uniform-price auction tends to have higher efficiency and cost-effectiveness when compliance behavior is taken into account.     

How Do the Trans‐Pacific Economies Affect the USA? An Industrial Sector Approach

This paper studies how the Trans‐Pacific region affects the US economy in terms of business cycle transmission. We use a large data set consisting of disaggregated sectoral industrial production indexes from selected countries in the region and employ a factor‐augmented vector autoregression (FAVAR) approach to analyse the transmission of shocks in different industries. We find that a positive output shock in the entire Trans‐Pacific region has positive effects on the majority of US manufacturing sectors. We also find that sectoral shocks in five sectors of the Trans‐Pacific region have a large impact on the overall US economy. Three of the five sectors displayed strong same‐sector responses relative to the overall response, suggesting that vertical production linkages might play a key role in the transmission of shocks. Our results highlight the importance of examining industrial sectors in studying the transmission of shocks in the Trans‐Pacific region.     

Do Workers’ Remittances Promote Access to Finance? Evidence from Asia-Pacific Developing Countries

This study empirically analyzes the impact of remittance inflows on access to formal financial services using panel data on thirty-eight developing countries in Asia and Oceania between 2001 and 2012. Our results indicate that remittances help to enlarge the national branch network of commercial banks. These findings are robust to changes in the dependent variable, namely, the number of commercial bank branches per person or per area, as well as the estimation method. With regard to control variables, we find that income level and economic openness have positive impacts on the number of bank branches, whereas the inflation rate has a negative impact.     

Student motorcyclists’ mobile phone use while driving in Vientiane,Laos

To investigate mobile phone use while driving among student motorcyclists in Laos, we conducted a school-based questionnaire survey in central Vientiane in May 2014. Of the 883 high school students who reported to drive motorcycles at least once a week, 40% have ever used phones while driving motorcycles in both sexes. Those phone users had longer driving exposures than non-users, with about half engaging in phone use while driving at least 2 days a week and 70% engaging for 1 min or longer on an average day. They reported not just talking on the phone while driving but operating the phone such as dialling and text-messaging. In some instances, phone use was reportedly involved in their past crash experiences. To formulate a sound policy on this emerging distracting behaviour among motorcyclists, its contribution to the occurrence of overall crashes among motorcyclists should be investigated.     

Does free trade promote environmental technology transfer?

We investigate how environmental and trade policies affect the transfer of environmental technology in a two-country model with global pollution. By comparing free trade and tariff policy with or without commitment, the following results are obtained. First, firms avoid the implementation of environmental tax by contracting technological transfer. Second, there is a case in which free trade is preferable to a tariff policy for both countries when there is no commitment to a tariff level. Third, free trade is not Pareto-preferred to a tariff policy when there is a commitment.     

Demystify Protectionism: The WTO Trade Policy Review of Japan

This paper reviews the eighth Trade Policy Review (TPR) for Japan. It begins with an appreciation of its fair and well‐balanced work in updating knowledge on the progress of policy reform in Japan. The TPR confirms the recovery of the Japanese economy with some notable improvements in its policy environment, the example of which is competition policy. On the other hand, there still remain notable trade impediments, particularly in agriculture. Some agricultural products are still heavily protected by complicated border measures. This paper provides some supplementary information, namely that the domestic production of most of the heavily protected products, with the exception of rice, are highly concentrated geographically, suggesting the politico‐economic background. The rise of regionalism is mentioned as another topical issue in Japan though the characteristics and significance of free trade agreement networking by Japan are not fully discussed by the TPR. The TPR praises Japan's effort in providing the generalised system of preferences (GSP), but this paper offers a somewhat sceptical view of the role of GSP as a useful tool for developing countries. Overall, the TPR for Japan is assessed as a good starting point for dealing with the remaining issues on international commercial policies in Japan.