Is Downward Wage Flexibility the Primary Factor of Japan's Prolonged Deflation?

By using both macro‐ and micro‐level data, this paper investigates how wages and prices evolved during Japan's lost two decades. We find that downward nominal wage rigidity was present in Japan until the late 1990s, but disappeared after 1998 as annual wages became downwardly flexible. Moreover, nominal wage flexibility may have contributed to Japan's relatively low unemployment rates. Although macro‐level movements in nominal wages and prices seemed to be synchronized, such synchronicity is not observed at the industry level. Therefore, wage deflation does not seem to be a primary factor of Japan's prolonged deflation.     

New roles of nonprofit organizations and partnership with government and/or business

The term NGO has been used more specifically to encompass nonprofit organizations engaged in international programs. In recent years, what Professor Lester Salamon of the Institute of Policy Studies of Johns Hopkins University has referred to as the ‘nonprofit sector’ seems popular worldwide. He defines nonprofit organizations as ‘organizations that share seven common features: they are formally constituted; organizationally separate from government; non‐profit‐seeking; self‐governing; voluntary to some significant degree; nonreligious; and nonpolitical (Salamon and Anheier 1994).’ To avoid confusion, the term ‘NGO’ is used in this paper in reference to nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations that are independent from any particular government office or private corporation and which are pursuing public interests.     

Labor productivity measurement in Japanese agriculture, 1956–90

This paper investigates the factors responsible for a drastic decline in the growth rate of labor productivity of the agricultural sector for the 1956–90 period. This investigation is carried out by a newly devised procedure which decomposes the growth rate of labor productivity into (1) the total substitution effect which consists of the effects due to factor price changes and biased technological change, and (2) the TFP effect composed of the effects due to scale economies and technological progress. Based on empirical estimation of the translog cost function, it was found that the total substitution effect contributed to the growth of labor productivity much more than the TFP effect did for the period under question.     

Output and Input Biases Caused by Public Agricultural Research and Extension in Japan, 1957–1997

The present paper investigates the magnitude and the Hicksian output and input biases of technological change brought about by investments in public agricultural research and extension activities in Japan. Given this objective, it estimates a translog multiproduct cost function for 1957–1997. Empirical results show that the cost reduction effects were fairly large. The Hicksian (1932) biases were found to be: (i) livestock-augmenting; (ii) labor- and other-inputs-saving; and (iii) machinery- and intermediate-inputs using. Except for other inputs, the directions of the biases are consistent with the Hicksian (1932) induced innovation hypothesis, which supports the public-sector-induced-innovation model proposed by Hayami and Ruttan (1985) and Ohtsuka (1982).     

Impact of overtime regulations on wages and work hours

Exploiting an ambiguity in the criteria regarding which employees are exempt from overtime regulations in Japan, this paper used the longitudinal data of Japanese employees to examine whether overtime regulations have an impact on hourly wages and hours worked. We found that although the differences between the hourly wages of the exempt and non-exempt employees were negligible, the hours worked by exempt employees were longer, especially for non-university graduates during the recessionary period. We interpreted that the fixed-wage model, rather than the fixed-job model, was prevalent during the recession period, especially for workers with low bargaining power.     

How does import processing time impact export patterns?

We examine how import processing time, which is one of the major obstacles in international trade, affects export patterns at the establishment level. Investigating the effect of such time costs on export patterns reveals how smoothness or sluggishness in operations at one stage affects all stages in an international production network. We first discuss the effects of import processing time on exports, export shipment frequency and exports per shipment from a theoretical standpoint. We employ highly detailed customs data for Thailand from 2007 to 2011 to empirically investigate our theoretical predictions. Import processing time is measured using the difference between the dates on which import shipments arrive in ports and when they were released from the container yard. Results suggest that longer import processing times reduce total exports, particularly as a result of decreasing export frequency; this testifies to the importance of time costs in international trade. It is also revealed that negative effects of import processing time on exports per shipment appear in some specific instances, such as in the case of sea transportation. These results imply that the time spent in one stage has significant effects on both upstream and downstream stages in international production networks.