Grid analysis for sales supervision

Falling to recognize the unique need and desire of salespeople, the sales manager tends to allocate supervisory time according to the amount of his or her past selling experience. This time allocation results in either the excessive or insufficient supervision of sales personnel. This article describes a process of arriving at a more optimum allocation of supervisory time.     

How Japan–US Economic Interdependence Changed from 1985 to 1990: Some Findings from Price-adjusted MITI Intercountry Input–Output Tables

This paper consists of two parts. First, constant-price Japan–US intercountry input–output (IO) tables are compiled, based on Japan–US IO tables of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) for 1985 and 1990, and the relative producer prices of both countries, which are estimated by the ‘peeling off’ method from OECD purchasing power parity data. Second, a factor decomposition analysis is carried out to show changes in Japan–US economic interdependence between 1985 and 1990. The Leontief inverse matrices of intercountry IO tables are decomposed into three matrices, which reflect domestic repercussion effects, spillover effects to the other country and feedback effects of own final demand from the other country. Then, a traditional decomposition analysis of changes in production for both countries is applied to see how both countries' economic interdependence changed. It is found that Japan–US economic interdependence moved from a pattern of Japan's dependence on the US to an almost equally interdependent pattern, although the degree of dependence was still higher in Japan in 1990. At the same time, there are significant industrial structural changes in the relationship between both countries, as a result of the significant appreciation of the yen relative to the dollar from 1985 to 1990.     

Estimating the interest rate semi-elasticity of the demand for money in low interest rate environments

We estimate the time profile of the interest rate semi-elasticity of the demand for money that is theoretically derived from a money-in-the-utility-function (MIUF) model. This semi-elasticity increases to infinity as interest rates fall to zero. Therefore, the use of this semi-elasticity has an advantage when examining the highly interest-elastic demand for money in low interest rate environments. Using Japanese and U.S. data, we find that the semi-elasticity increases exponentially in low interest rate environments. For example, the highest value of the semi-elasticity in Japan is observed in 2005, and is approximately 350 times larger than the value in 1990.     

Information technology and the Japanese economy

In this paper we compare sources of economic growth in Japan and the United States from 1975 through 2003, focusing on the role of information technology (IT). We have adjusted Japanese data to conform to US definitions in order to provide a rigorous comparison between the two economies. The adjusted data show that the share of the Japanese gross domestic product devoted to investment in computers, telecommunications equipment, and software rose sharply after 1995. The contribution of total factor productivity growth from the IT sector in Japan also increased, while the contributions of labor input and productivity growth from the non-IT sector lagged far behind the United States. Our projection of potential economic growth in Japan from for the next decade is substantially below that in the United States, mainly due to slower growth of labor input. Our projections of labor productivity growth in the two economies are much more similar. J. Japanese Int. Economies 19 (4) (2005) 460–481.     

Population and Urbanization Trends in Post‐war Japan

This paper analyses the population change and urbanization process in post‐war Japan. We trace the process of population concentration into urban areas, in parallel with economic development after the war. The concentration of population into urban areas can be characterized by three major metropolitan regions: Tokyo, Keihanshin (Kyoto‐Osaka‐Kobe) and Nagoya. We also show that the urbanization process of Japan in the period from 1965 to 1985 can be characterized by two spatial phenomena; firstly, the suburbanization of the existing metropolitan areas and, secondly, the spatial dispersal of urbanized areas.     

The relative and incremental explanatory powers of dirty surplus items for debt interest rate

This study investigates the relationship between dirty surplus items on the balance sheet and the cost of debt for Japanese firms. We focus on three dirty surplus items—unrealized gains and losses on available-for-sale securities (SEC), foreign currency translation adjustment (FOC), and land revaluation surplus (LAND). While many previous studies on dirty surplus adopted the value-relevance perspective, we examine the effect of dirty surplus items on the interest rate spread of bonds from the bond market perspective. We use the [Vuong, Q. H. (1989). Likelihood ratio tests for model selection and non-nested hypotheses. Econometrica, 57, 307–333] test to evaluate the relative explanatory power of the equity ratio with and without dirty surplus items for the interest rate spread on bonds issued. We find evidence that the equity ratio with dirty surplus items is more strongly associated with the debt interest rate than that without dirty surplus items. The results suggest that the total amount of dirty surplus items have statistically significant explanatory power for the interest rate spread. However, some dirty surplus items do not have explanatory powers for the bond interest rate spread. While FOC has relative and incremental explanatory powers and SEC has only incremental explanatory power, LAND has neither relative nor incremental explanatory power for the bond interest rate spread. The results mean that FOC and SEC are useful to Japanese bond investors.     

Boundedness of economic variables and Olech's theorem

On the basis of Olech's theorem we derive conditions on which any solution path starting from an arbitrary initial point in a two-dimensional bounded region ultimately converges to a unique equilibrium point without escaping from the region during a transition period. Then, using the result, we render one proposition more exact from the economic point of view.I would like to thank two anonymous referees for valuable comments and advices. Remaining errors are, of course, wholly due to myself.     

The new communication age in Japan

Moriya Koyama, Japanese Vice-Minester of Posts and Telecommunications, outlines the need for and format of the recent reforms in Japan's telecommunications. Importantly, the principle of competition has been introduced throughout Japanese telecommunications, with private enterprises now able to provide main categories of service. The principles of impartiality between domestic and foreign suppliers and of fairness in competition have been enshrined in the reform. Further, Japan wishes to promote cooperation in the Pacific basin area to develop economic growth throughout the region.     

Testing for volatility spillover between the British pound and the euro

This paper examines volatility spillover between two nominal U.S. dollar exchange rates: the British pound and the euro. Using the residual cross-correlation approach, we observe that the euro Granger-causes the British pound in variance, whereas the British pound does not Granger-cause the euro in variance. Our findings support unidirectional volatility spillover from the euro to the British pound; thus, the euro volatility has a one-sided impact on the British pound volatility. Moreover, the findings suggest that euro traders succeed in the efficient processing of information derived from the British pound.