“Trilemmas”: Characterising the Japanese Concept of “amae” with a Three-Way Forced-Ranking Technique

A ‘trilemma’ procedure is introduced for collecting ‘dominance data’ (i.e. rankings of a set of items along a scale of relevance, preference, etc.). Trilemmas are three-way forced choices where the three items comprising each trilemma are selected on the basis of a multidimensional scaling solution (MDS) for the item set, ensuring that each choice is as stark and informative as possible. A questionnaire designed on this principle is easily understood and rapidly administered. The data are convenient to record and show less fluctuation among informants than existing techniques. We demonstrate the procedure with a set of 45 short generalisations about behaviour, designed for assessing child attachment. A three-dimensional ‘map’ of these items was obtained by applying MDS to multiple sets of similarity data. The same structure emerged from English-language and Japanese translations of the items. Thirty trilemmas based on this map were used to rank the items by degree of association with the Japanese concept of amae, characterising the concept in terms of its behavioural correlates.     

Reallocation and productivity growth in Japan: revisiting the lost decade of the 1990s

Hayashi and Prescott (Rev Econ Dyn 5(1):206–235, 2002) argue that the ‘lost decade’ of the 1990s in Japan is explained by the slowdown in exogenous TFP growth rates. At the same time, other research suggests that Japanese banks’ support for inefficient firms prolonged recessions by reducing productivity through misallocation of resources. Using the data on large manufacturing firms between 1969 and 1996, the paper attempts to disentangle the factors behind the slowdown in productivity growth during the 1990s. The main results show that there was a significant drop in within-firm productivity, the component that is not affected by reallocation of input and output shares across firms over time, during the 1990s. Although we find that misallocation among large continuing firms represents a substantial drag to overall TFP growth for these firms throughout the sample period, the negative impact of misallocation was least visible during the 1990s. The significant reduction in within-firm productivity growth suggests that, as the Japanese economy has matured, a policy which fosters technological innovations via greater competition, R&D, and fast technological adoption may have become increasingly important in promoting economic growth.

Consumer vulnerability and complaint handling: Challenges,opportunities and dispute system design

Effectively designed complaint handling systems play a key role in enabling vulnerable consumers to complain and obtain redress. This article examines current research into consumer vulnerability, highlighting its multidimensional and expansive nature. Contemporary understandings of consumer vulnerability recognize that the interaction between a wide range of market and consumer characteristics can combine to place any individual at risk of vulnerability. While this broad definition of consumer vulnerability reflects the complex reality of consumers’ experiences, it poses a key challenge for designers of complaint handling systems: how can they identify and respond to an issue which can potentially affect everyone? Drawing on current research and practice in the United Kingdom and Australia, the article analyses the impact of consumer vulnerability on third party dispute resolution schemes and considers the role these complaint handling organizations can play in supporting their complainants. Third party complaint handling organizations, including a range of Alternative Dispute Resolution services such as ombudsman organizations, can play a key role in increasing access to justice for vulnerable consumer groups and provide specific assistance for individual complainants during the process. It is an opportune time to review whether the needs of consumers at risk of vulnerability are being met within complaint processes and the extent to which third party complaint handlers support those who are most vulnerable to seek redress. Empowering vulnerable consumers to complain presents specific challenges. The article discusses the application of a new model of consumer dispute system design to show how complaint handling organizations can meet the needs of the most vulnerable consumers throughout the process.     

Trader Survival: Evidence from the Energy Futures Markets

This study analyzes the adaptation of traders and the determinants of trader survival during a period of changing market structures. Our unique sample of transactions level data covers the introduction of electronic trading in the NYMEX energy futures market. The results show that most floor traders adapted to the side‐by‐side electronic and open outcry trading, although trader attrition increased and the profitability of surviving traders declined dramatically. It is also found that trading profits, trader experience and sophistication, and dual trading have a positive effect on the probability of trader survival. Scalpers are less likely to exit trading in pure open outcry trading, but are more likely to fail than traders who hold open positions longer in side‐by‐side trading. Finally, traders trading in multiple energy futures markets and those who use both the exchange floor and electronic trading appear to have a survival advantage in side‐by‐side trading. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 32:809–836, 2012     

Deregulating Overtime Hours Restrictions on Women and its Effects on Female Employment: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Japan

This paper provides novel evidence on the effect of deregulating overtime hours restrictions on women by using the 1985 Amendments to the Labour Standards Act (LSA) in Japan as a natural experiment. The original LSA of 1947 prohibited women from working overtime exceeding two hours a day; six hours a week; and 150 hours a year. The 1985 Amendments exempted a variety of occupations and industries from such an overtime restriction on women. Applying a difference‐in‐difference model to census data, we find causal evidence pointing to the positive effect of this particular piece of labour market deregulation on the proportion of female employment. We then carry out a series of sensitivity analyses to ensure the robustness of our finding. Especially, we conduct a falsification test and an event study to show that our causal inference is not threatened by the differential pretreatment trends. Finally, we use quantile regressions and find that for jobs with more rapidly growing proportion of female employment, the effect of the exemption from the overtime work restriction on women is larger.     

Reframing the Past: Thoughts about Business Leadership and Decision Making under Uncertainty

How do business leaders make decisions in the face of uncertainty?More important, how do business and economic historians writea narrative that links a business problem, its proposed solution,and the outcome of this action without allowing the successor failure of the decision to determine the trajectory of thestory? Counterfactual hypotheses and contextual analysis providetwo tools that can help historians minimize the distortionsof hindsight and recover a sense of the contingency that surroundsall decisions.     

The optimal size of Japan's public pensions: An analysis considering the risks of longevity and volatility of return on assets

There are two main pension systems: the Defined Benefit (DB) pension system and the Defined Contribution (DC) pension system. Each system has advantages and disadvantages. This paper investigates to what degree Japan should maintain a DB public pension system which offers the benefit of sharing risk and to what degree Japan must adopt a DC pension system to eliminate intergenerational imbalance. The risks of longevity and volatility of return on assets are incorporated into the simulation model. As a result of the simulation analysis, a replacement rate of 20–30% would be adequate for future generations if the expected return on assets and the wage growth rate are at the same level. Meanwhile, if the former is 2% points larger than the latter, a replacement rate of 0% or full-scale privatization would be desirable.