The Effects of Incidence of Care Needs in Households on Employment,Subjective Health,and Life Satisfaction among Middle‐aged Family Members

In this study, based on longitudinal data, we investigate whether Japanese middle‐aged men and women become less likely to have a job and whether their sense of well‐being decreases when they have a family member who needs care. We find a consistent negative impact of having a family member who needs care on employment, but no impact on subjective health and life satisfaction. Further, the differences‐in‐differences (DID) estimation, based on both unmatched and matched data, shows that the Long‐Term Care Insurance (LTCI) introduced in 2000 did not mitigate the adverse impact on the probability of being employed.     

Tax competition, rent-seeking and fiscal decentralization

The present paper provides a basis for evaluating fiscal decentralization of expenditure and tax responsibilities, by encompassing the literature on tax competition and rent seeking. Both tax and rent seeking competitions are conceived of as being wasteful and self-defeating. We find that rent-seeking activities account for political distortions which may be mitigated in the process of fiscal decentralization, while tax competition results in economic distortions associated with decentralization. Welfare evaluation should be based on the balance of the political gain and the economic cost.     

SOCIAL SECURITY AND WELL‐BEING IN A LOW‐INCOME ECONOMY: AN APPRAISAL OF THE KERALA EXPERIENCE

The State of Kerala, which is considered to have attained a level of social well‐being comparable to that of advanced countries despite its relatively low income standard, is widely known as an example of “welfare by public intervention” in developing economies. This paper, focusing on the four areas of food provision, health services, elementary education, and pension schemes, and paying attention to the participation of the private sector as well as the activities of political parties and labor unions, points out that in Kerala, the private sector and organized activities have played a vital role, in addition to “public intervention,” in the betterment of public welfare.     

权势的价值:党员身份与社会网络的回报在不同所有制企业是否不同?

在市场化改革的进程中,党员身份和社会关系网络作为两种非市场因素,它们对于收入的作用在不同所有制企业有所不同吗?通过对中国家庭收入调查(CHIPS)数据的分析,本文发现:(1)党员身份能显著地提高收入,但党员身份在不同所有制部门的作用并不存在显著差异,并且通过1995年与2002年的数据比较,党员的回报也并未发生显著变化; (2)社会网络在国有单位对收入没有显著影响,但在非国有单位对收入有显著的正影响。     

A comparative analysis of new product development by Italian and Japanese manufacturing companies: A case study

Based on survey data from Italian and Japanese companies, six measurement scales are developed for practices, process, strategic guide, and capabilities for new product development as potential determinants of its financial performance, that is, attainment of profit goals and revenue goals. By employing a regression model with a country dummy variable, the differential determinants of financial goals attainment between Italian and Japanese samples are estimated. A significant difference can be found in the impact of new product development capabilities on profit goals attainment only. Then, we evaluate the level of improvement in explanatory power by dividing the pooled sample into two and enabling regression coefficients to take different values, and find no evidences of the significant improvement. Technology and marketing capabilities concerning new product development are demonstrated to be overwhelmingly important to financial performance.     

Industry‐specific Real Effective Exchange Rates and Export Price Competitiveness: The Cases of Japan,China, and Korea

This paper constructs a new dataset of the industry‐specific real effective exchange rate, based on the producer price indices, for Japan, China, and Korea on a monthly basis from January 2001 to February 2013 in order to provide a better indicator for export price competitiveness. By conducting simulation analysis, we found that Korean electrical machinery firms substantially improved their cost competitiveness by lowering their production costs during the Korean won appreciation period, while Japanese firms' large plant investment caused by management misjudgments led to excessive production capacity, which resulted in the deterioration of Japanese export competitiveness. A structural vector autoregression analysis also reveals that industry differences of cost competitiveness as well as nominal exchange rate changes have significant impact on export performances of Japan and Korea.     

The Role of Physically Active Leisure for Enhancing Quality of Life

Drawing upon bottom-up theory of life satisfaction, this study develops and tests a model that links physically active leisure to people's quality of life. Results from a sample of 827 running event participants revealed that satisfaction with event participation and psychological involvement in running were significant predictors of participants’ life domain satisfaction and overall life satisfaction, both of which are common subjective indicators of quality of life. Conversely, behavioral involvement in running was a non-significant predictor of life domain satisfaction and overall life satisfaction. These findings suggest that physically active leisure may enhance participants’ quality of life by providing positive experiences through event participation and contributing to psychological involvement in physical activity.     

Whither A Currency Union in Greater China?

The paper attempts to evaluate the prospect of creating a currency union in the “Greater China” economic area. Despite of the political deadlock and military confrontation in the Taiwan Strait, the Greater China area has experienced rapid and spontaneous regional integration in the past decades as a result of increasingly cross-border trade, foreign direct investment (FDI), technology contracts, and other arrangements in accordance with changes in comparative advantage and industrial upgrading in these economies. In this study, we focus on the symmetry in shocks that is perceived as one of the major preconditions of a currency union. In contrast to the previous studies, we investigate the time-varying correlation of supply, REER and monetary shocks by using the Kalman filter technique to assess the dynamic changes in structural similarity and convergence among the Greater China economies. We also examine the costs of forming a currency union in the area due to the loss of monetary autonomy in each economy. Our results suggest that there is a rising structural symmetry between the Greater China economies, and this area has become increasingly a better candidate for a monetary union.