Russia: Firm entry and survival barriers

Why are there so few new firms in Russia? This paper provides further insights into the specific Russian business landscape and how it impacts the low level of new firm entry. As this paper indicates, internationally comparative data do not provide many clues, since in terms of purely formal constraints Russia fares comparatively well. However, a deeper analysis uncovers the informal impediments associated with the lack of rule of law, inconsistent enforcement of regulations, regional autonomy and pervasive corruption. These informal constraints form impediments not only for new firm creation but also for firm survival and firm exit.     

Competition in a Dynamic Auction Market: Identification,Structural Estimation,and Market Efficiency

The model incorporates an infinite series of auctions for identical items (or close substitutes) ordered over time and bidders with unit demand. The participants of each auction are drawn from a dynamic pool, with losing bidders remaining in the pool of potential bidders. The number of bidders in each auction is unobservable. Risk‐neutral, forward‐looking bidders submit bids below valuation. A novel identification and estimation strategy is used to estimate the valuation distribution from an order statistic of the bids. The model is used to evaluate the efficiency of online auctions for a 60GB Apple iPod Video, compared to a perfect‐competition benchmark.     

Agricultural Land Conversion and Inheritence Tax in Japan

In this paper we investigate theoretically the extent to which the development timing of agricultural land conversion would be hastened by the introduction of inheritence tax. We extend the optimal timing of wealth maximizing value use models by Scouras (1978), Anderson (1993) and Kanemoto (1996) to examine cases where tax rates vary according to land use with (i) almost no income and (ii) high income use, such as rental housing. We first model landowner's behavior within the life cycle dynamic optimization framework and then simulate the impact of inheritence tax on the optimal timing of development. Some notable predictions about optimal timing of development emerge from our numerical analysis: no inheritence tax effect is observed for landowners whose inheritence probability is less than 1% (that is, landowners in the age group 40 or below) and whose inheritence tax rate is less than 10%. However, the optimal timing of development drops to below one year for landowners whose inheritence probability is more than 18% and whose tax rate is 30%.     

Product Market Competition in Transition Economies: Increasing Varieties and Consumer Loyalty

This paper analyzes product market competition between foreign entrants and former SOEs in transition markets with respect to expansion of product variety and consumer loyalty formation. While the market share motive induces the more efficient foreign entrant to price aggressively, the extent of this behavior depends critically on its relative efficiency vis-à-vis the local incumbent. If the efficiency gap exceeds some threshold value, the entrant exploits increasingly its cost advantages by raising price rather than investing in market share. Our result suggests that immediate restructuring of former SOEs is important to realize fully the competitive benefits of opening local markets.J. Comp. Econom., December 2000, 28(4), pp. 700–715. International Monetary Fund, 700 19th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20431.     

Hepatocellular carcinoma: Prospective assessments of the T-factor with CT,US, and MR imaging

The capabilities of computed tomography (CT), ultrasonography (US), and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging were studied in order to determine the role of each of these noninvasive examinations for estimating the T-factor of hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs). Fifty-one patients with surgically proven HCCs received CT (50 patients), US (46 patients), and MR (44 patients). The images of CT, US, and MR were prospectively evaluated for main tumor size, intrahepatic metastases, and vascular invasion, which compose the T-factor of HCC, and compared to pathological results. The sizes of the main tumor were estimated correctly by all examinations. For estimating intrahepatic metastases, US (74%) and MR (73%) were superior to CT (65%). For estimating portal invasion, CT (79%) was superior to US (70%) and MR (66%), because CT could demonstrate the segmental staining caused by portal invasion. The estimates of hepatic venous invasion were difficult during any of the examinations. We conclude that presurgical evaluations of the T-factor require the use of US and CT or MR and CT.     

Trading and Ordering Patterns of Market Participants in High Frequency Trading Environment: Empirical Study in the Japanese Stock Market

In this study, we investigate ordering patterns of different types of market participants in Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) by examining order records of the listed stocks. Firstly, we categorize the virtual servers in the trading system of TSE, each of which is linked to a single trading participant, by the ratio of cancellation and execution in the order placement as well as the number of executions at the opening of the afternoon session. Then, we analyze ordering patterns of the servers in the categories in short intervals for the top 10 highest trading volume stocks. By classifying the intervals into four cases by returns, we observe how different types of market participants submit or execute orders in the market situations. Moreover, we investigate the shares of the executed volumes for the different types of servers in the swings and roundabouts of the Nikkei 225 index, which were observed in September in 2015. The main findings of this study are as follows: Server type A, which supposedly includes non-market making proprietary traders with high-speed algorithmic strategies, executes and places orders along with the direction of the market. The shares of the execution and order volumes along with the market direction increase when the stock price moves sharply. Server type B, which presumably includes servers employing a market making strategy with high cancellation and low execution ratio, shifts its market making price ranges in the rapid price movements. We observe that passive servers in Server type B have a large share and buy at low levels in the price falls. Also, Server type B, as well as Server type A, makes profit in the price falling days and particularly, the aggressive servers in the server type make most of the profit. Server type C, which is assumed to include servers receiving orders from small investors, constantly has a large share of execution and order volume.     

An Algorithm of Recommending Apposite ID Photos

This article proposes an algorithm to recommend apposite ID photos for users by judging the photo of which the facial expression is apposite or not as the ID photo. Microsoft’s Kinect sensor is used for taking photos. Parts of the face, such as eyes, nose, and mouth, are analyzed as explanatory variables for judging face expression. Some body coordinate information such as head and shoulders is used to trim the photos. Neural networks and support vector machines are employed and compared to our proposed method. To achieve accurate results, ten examinees including specialized staff are selected for taking ID photo used for training models. A series of experiments are conducted to examine the validity. As a result, the accuracy of neural networks is better than that of the support vector machine. Furthermore, we analyze and discuss the difference between system results and specialized staffs’ opinions.

     

The Japanese financial system in comparative perspective

Major elements of financial market structure in Japan and the U. S. are compared for the postwar period. It is found that the ratio of financial liabilities of the nonfinancial sector to GNP rose continuously in Japan, but was stable in the U. S. Intermediation was deeper in Japan than in the U. S., and the Japanese government's chief role was as an intermediary rather than as borrower or regulator. There was more competition in deposit collection in Japan than in the U. S. It is hypothesized that the depth and competition in Japanese financial structure helped raise savings, investment, and GNP growth.