On the role of job assignment in a comparison of education systems

Abstract This paper re‐examines how differences in systems for financing education influence GDP by highlighting a neglected function of education policy: it affects the magnitude of gains from job assignment. When more productive jobs demand more skill, privately financed education can increase productivity gains from matching between jobs and skill by increasing the availability of highly educated people. This differs from the standard argument that publicly financed education increases the total amount of human capital by equalizing educational opportunities. It is shown that if job opportunities have large variations in productivity, education policy may face a serious efficiency–equity trade‐off.     

Beyond mobile number portability: measuring consumer preferences for service portability in Japan's mobile phone market

Japan's mobile phone market has been oligopolized by three incumbents who are seeking vertically integrated business models, which may prevent competitors from using platform layers to provide original services. We conduct two types of conjoint analysis to measure consumer stated preferences and draw two main conclusions from the analyses. First, the average consumer is willing to pay more than JPY 2000 (US $20) to increase mobile service portability. Second, the average consumer's willingness to pay corresponds to JPY 100–200 (US $1–2) per song for securing music download platforms. A dilemma exists in consumer preferences for service portability in Japan's mobile phone market, namely the choice between free mobile service portability and convenient music download platforms.     

Discrete Choice Analysis of Demand for Broadband in Japan

The remarkable development of Japan’s broadband (BB) market has attracted attention worldwide. This paper is one of the first to analyze Japan’s BB demand (including FTTH) using a discrete choice model. Our main conclusions are first, there is a distinction between narrowband (NB) and BB services based on a nested choice structure. Second, considering own-price elasticities of access demand, ADSL is inelastic, but FTTH and CATV are elastic. Third, in ADSL submarkets, low-speed and high-speed ADSL are becoming more elastic.     

A note on government spending on infrastructure in an endogenous growth model with finite horizon

By extending the work of Mourmouras and Lee (1999), we show that the growth-maximizing income tax rate maximizes also the utilities of not only all current generations but also all future generations. This result means that the statement that the growth-maximizing income tax rate is equivalent to the welfare maximizing one holds true in a stronger sense than Barro (1990) and Mourmouras and Lee (1999) have pointed out.     

Dynamic Analysis of Imitation and Technology Gap

This paper investigates how imitation activities affect the technology gap between developing and developed countries using a North-South model in which the variety of goods is expanding over time. If imitation productivity is high enough, nonrivalrous ideas and inexpensive labor enables developing countries to reduce their technological backwardness by imitating products even if their initial level of technology is far behind the technology in developed countries. We also show that the rise of imitation productivity may benefit both developing and developed countries if they prefer a sufficient variety of goods.     

Discrete choice model analysis of mobile telephone service demand in Japan

This paper analyzes the demand for mobile telephones including second generation (2G) and third generation (3G) by using a discrete choice model called a mixed logit model. First, we examine the substitution patterns of the demand for mobile telephones and show that demand substitutability among alternatives is stronger within the provider nest category than within the standard nest category in mobile telephone services. The closest substitute for NTT’s 3G service is NTT’s 2G service, rather than KDDI’s 3G service, for example. Second, we investigate the elasticities of demand for various functions including e-mail, Web browsing, and moving picture delivery. Consequently, we cannot observe marked differences between 2G and 3G services based on these calculated elasticities, indicating that it takes time for 3G subscribers to gain proficiency with such new services.      

On the equivalence of the Arrow impossibility theorem and the Brouwer fixed point theorem when individual preferences are weak orders

We will show that in the case where there are two individuals and three alternatives (or under the assumption of the free-triple property), and individual preferences are weak orders (which may include indifference relations), the Arrow impossibility theorem [Arrow, K.J., 1963. Social Choice and Individual Values, second ed. Yale University Press] that there exists no binary social choice rule which satisfies the conditions of transitivity, Pareto principle, independence of irrelevant alternatives, and non-existence of dictator is equivalent to the Brouwer fixed point theorem on a 2-dimensional ball (circle). Our study is an application of ideas by Chichilnisky [Chichilnisky, G., 1979. On fixed points and social choice paradoxes. Economics Letters 3, 347–351] to a discrete social choice problem, and also it is in line with the work by Baryshnikov [Baryshnikov, Y., 1993. Unifying impossibility theorems: a topological approach. Advances in Applied Mathematics 14, 404–415].     

TFP growth slowdown and the Japanese labor market in the 1990s

Unemployment in Japan nearly tripled during the 1990s. Underlying this upsurge lie an increase in the probability of workers to lose their jobs and a decrease in the probability that the unemployed find jobs. This paper analyzes the sources responsible for these labor market changes in Japan in the decade of the 1990s. We build, calibrate, and simulate a neo-classical growth model with search frictions in the labor market. Using actual TFP data, the model is able to reproduce the path of unemployment and the job flows, as well as that of output. We find it to be the decrease in productivity, coupled with the reduction in hours worked, which curtails the profits of firms, inducing a drop in employment and an increase in unemployment.     

Analysis of Internet topology with a three‐level components model

The vertical structure of the Internet is considered as having three‐level components: backhyphen‐bone‐level interconnection, mid‐level transit, and local‐level access. This paper considers single and cross mergers between an integrated provider and an entrant in the different area. As a result of these mergers, cross entry, in which both integrated providers merge with the retail entrants in the other areas, is more socially desirable than single entry, in which only one firm merges, which is, in turn, preferred to no entry. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.