Dual Labor Markets and Trade Reform in China

This paper specifically models rigidities in the labor market in China and analyzes the effect of labor market liberalization on economic growth using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. Our results indicate that labor market reforms are essential to the realization of significant gains from China's accession in November 2001 to the World Trade Organization (WTO). In the absence of labor market reform, the gains to accession to the WTO are estimated to be minimal.     

Market Leadership Volatility in Japanese Industries

The paper computes the extent of marketleadership volatility by industry, and then examinesthe determinants of volatility in Japanesemanufacturing industries. Volatility varies fromindustry to industry, and changes over time in manyindustries. Concentration coexists with lessvolatility, suggesting that the former has a policysignificance. Concentration change has a significantand positive effect. Exports have avolatility-promoting effect, but imports have noeffect. Industry size tends to decrease volatility.The effect of industry growth is not found.Advertising, R&D and distribution channel have nodefinite effect respectively as well.     

Commodity Taxation and the Effects of Entry: A Case of Variety Preferences

We study the relationship between commodity taxation and the effect of entry with imperfect competition. We develop a simple general equilibrium model with imperfect competition in which consumers have variety preferences. As a result, we see that introducing specific taxes increases social welfare. Furthermore, we show that the optimal tax rule is contrary to the inverse elasticity rule.Acknowledgement We wish to thank two anonymous referees for their helpful comments.     

Hepatocellular carcinoma with tumor thrombus in the inferior vena cava and right atrium

Tumor thrombus (TT) in the inferior vena cava (IVC) and right atrium (RA) is rarely encountered. We have diagnosed before death and treated a case of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with TT in the IVC and RA, accompanied by a brain metastasis. The image characteristics on computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and conventional angiography are discussed.     

Giffen behavior independent of the wealth level

We demonstrate that a well-behaved utility function can generate Giffen behavior, where “well-behaved” means that its indifference curves are smooth, convex, and closed in a commodity space; the resulting demand function of each good is differentiable with respect to prices and income. Moreover, we show that Giffen behavior is compatible with any level of utility and an arbitrarily low share of income spent on the inferior good. This contrasts sharply with the common view that the Giffen paradox tends to occur when households’ wealth levels are low. Comments from Murray C. Kemp, Binh Tran-Nam, Ngo Van Long, Masao Oda, Noritsugu Nakanishi, and Chiaki Hara have greatly improved the paper. We have also benefited from discussions with Koichi Hamada, Satya Das, Takashi Kamihigashi, Tomoyuki Kamo, Toru Kikuchi, Katsufumi Fukuda, Yu-chin Chen, Fahad Khalil, Takeshi Nakatani, Kazuo Nishimura, Ken-Ichi Shimomura, and Stephen J. Turnovsky. We thank the anonymous referee for his/her helpful comments. Iwasa would like to acknowledge financial support from Research Fellowships of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for Young Scientists. Professor Koji Shimomura passed away on February 24, 2007. This paper was completed after his untimely death.     

The Determinants of Firm Exit in Japanese Manufacturing Industries

This paper presents new evidence on the determinants of firm exits that occurred in Japanese manufacturing industries over the period 1981--1989. Gross-number measure is used for exits. Many structural factors have exerted a definite influence on the extent of exit; across industries, capital intensity and subcontracting relationships have an exit-promoting effect, while profits, industry growth, concentration, and R&D opportunity have a negative relationship with exit. In addition, the minimum efficient size has an inverted-U-shaped relationship. However, export opportunity has only a marginal effect. These results are likely to reflect exits of small business.     

Commodity Taxation and Economic Growth

We construct a variety expansion growth model following Grossman and Helpman (1991) and incorporate various groups of goods into the model. Each group has its own elasticity of substitution. We seek to determine the goods on which the government should impose higher rates of commodity tax in order to raise a certain amount of tax revenue. We thus reconsider the Ramsey Rule (the Inverse Elasticity Rule) in a growing economy.     

Diversification and R & D activity in Japanese manufacturing firms

This his paper examines the influence of diversification on R & D intensity in Japanese manufacturing firms. Then alternative definitions of the diversification index are used. The results show that diversification is not a factor favorable to R & D activity. The finding that advertising intensity is positively and significantly related to R & D activity should also be noted.     

A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis of Efficiency Improvements at Japanese Ports

In this paper we investigate the system-wide impact of increased efficiency of ports in Japan using a computable general equilibrium model developed for 1995. The Japanese Ministry of Transport has been implementing programs of the Ninth Seven-year Port Development Plan to improve port efficiency. The technological efficiency in the ports reduces the cost of shipping transportation, and the forward and backward linkages of imports and exports introduce some positive gains in the national GDP. Our analysis proves that the spillover effects are substantial on shipping transportation and to a lesser extent on the Japanese economy.     

The efficiency of small manufacturing firms in Japan

It has been suggested that market structure will have an impact on within-industry differentials in efficiency, or cost disadvantages of small firms. To test this hypothesis, this paper examines the effects of market structure on the productivity (relative to industry productivity) of small manufacturing firms in Japan. The results show that market structure elements such as concentration and capital requirements work to the disadvantage of small-firm efficiency. The findings provide support for the hypothesis.