Transferability of computer technology across asian cultures

Though somewhat handicapped by relatively late entry into the computer age, serious attempts are now being made by several Asian countries to take a more active role in the development and export of computer technology, long dominated by the United States and West European countries. Japan, for one, embarked on all-out efforts in the early 1980s to develop the powerful fifth generation computer; it ranks second in the world in the number of computers in use, and has accumulated considerable knowledge and knowhow in the design and use of computer-based Management Information Systems (MIS).This article presents findings from a study conducted in Japan and Hong Kong on the transferability of computer technology, specifically its behavioural aspect, across Oriental cultures.     

Illustrating extraordinary shocks causing trend breaks

Structural breaks in a trending variable have been specified as changes in the drift parameter in the trend component, but extraordinary shocks causing these breaks have not been explicitly formulated. In this paper, the Hodrick–Prescott filter is extended by assuming two kinds of variance for the system noise driving the trend component: the larger one adopted in a point of time causing a trend break, and the smaller one adopted for remaining sequences. The number and location of structural breaks are determined by information criteria. In the proposed method, extraordinary shocks themselves can be illustrated. A Monte Carlo study shows the efficacy of the proposed model. Empirical results suggest that except for the UK, extraordinary shocks in quarterly time series of industrial production are detected for remaining six developed countries. Finally, it is shown that the proposed method considerably outperforms the other competing methods in correctly detecting business cycles.     

Decomposition of new venture growth into firm age,survey period and vintage effects

Firm data are accumulated on a yearly basis. In view of the linear relationship of firm age?+?foundation year?=?survey year, the fluctuations of firm data classified by age and period cannot be decomposed into age, period and cohort (foundation year) effects. Three decomposition methods are briefly reviewed and applied to Japanese data on new ventures founded since 1995. Regarding sales and employment growth, the age effect is the largest with a downward trend, and the cohort effect is negligible. Regarding labour productivity, the age effect indicates upward movements, and the cohort effect is negligible. The reason of the negligible cohort effect is discussed.     

Theoretical and experimental investigations of the performance of keyword auction mechanisms

Two keyword auction mechanisms, the Generalized Second‐Price auction (GSP) and the Vickrey‐Clarke‐Groves mechanism (VCG), were compared theoretically and experimentally. The former is widely used in practice; the latter is not, but it has a dominant strategy equilibrium where all participants bid their true values. In the theoretical investigation, by applying the “locally envy‐free Nash equilibrium” to the VCG, we found that the allocations are efficient and that upper and lower bounds of the auctioneer's revenue coincide in the two mechanisms. A laboratory experiment, in which the revenues and efficiencies were similar in both mechanisms, supported this result.     

A cohort analysis of household vehicle expenditure in the U.S. and Japan: A possibility of generational marketing

This paper shows the usefulness of cohort analysis for generational marketing. Aggregate data classified by age and period are decomposed into age, period, and generational cohort effects. We compare two cohort-analysis models, the constrained multiple regression model and the Bayesian cohort model. The empirical results that are common to the household vehicle expenditure ratio in the U.S. and Japan are as follows: (1) among a total of three effects, the period effect is the smallest; (2) with the exception of the latest birth cohort, the cohort effect shows a clear upward trend; (3) the age effect decreases in the 20s and 30s, and next increases with a peak detected in the late 50s, and finally decreases. We provide marketing implications for cohort segmentation and forecasting.     

Differentiating between business cycles and growth cycles: evidence from 15 developed countries

Growth cycles are often mistaken for business cycles, although these two have different statistical properties. In order to differentiate between them in a statistically satisfactory manner, the Bayesian information criterion-(BIC) based model-selection approach is presented. Business cycles are described by the cyclical trend model, and growth cycles are described by the trend-plus-cycle model. Whether the observed time series is derived from business cycles or from growth cycles is determined as a result of model selection. It is shown via data-based simulations that the proposed method works well in most situations. Empirical results obtained for 15 countries suggest that the business cycle model is selected for five countries, the growth cycle model is selected for two countries and the trend-plus-noise model is selected for eight countries.     

WHY DOES A TWO-PARTY SYSTEM EXIST?: A NEW ECONOMIC EXPLANATION*

The purpose of this paper is to present a new economic explanation for why a multiple-party system can endogenously arise as a result of the electoral process. The traditional view on the electoral process (i.e., the median voter theorem) is that political parties that pursue policies in the interest of the median voter are led to a convergence of policies. However, this view cannot explain why either conservative or liberal parties win election in many democratic countries. In order to explain this paradox, the following model considers an economy with three types of parties: conservative, middle, and liberal parties. In the model, the policy of each party is assumed to be time-consistent, so that the policy of the middle party generally leads to suboptimal outcomes for the majority voters. Thus, the “rational” majority voters try to elect the political party whose objective is biased. As a result, the electoral process may lead to a two-party system where both conservative and liberal parties have a chance to win election.     

Identifying uncertainty shocks using world diffusion index

ABSTRACT

In this study, a world diffusion index is developed to measure how uncertainty shocks have diffused among 179 economies and caused contractions in the world growth cycles. This index is simply defined as the percentage share of the number of expanding countries. It identifies four uncertainty shocks: the oil crisis of 1973; the bursting of the information technology bubble in 2000; the credit crunch of 2007; and the European debt crisis of 2010. To overcome the problem of data unavailability in emerging market economies, the annual GDP values of 179 economies are transformed through temporal disaggregation, and the dating of quarterly growth cycles is implemented as per the OECD method. The empirical findings indicate that each of the uncertainty shocks caused severe contractions in the advanced economies but that the emerging market economies experienced such contractions only during the credit crunch of 2007. Policy implications are also discussed.     

A Comparative Study of U.S. and Japanese Meat Consumption Using Age-Period-Cohort Decomposition

Household life cycle has been widely used as a determinant of consumer behavior and a basis for market segmentation. Repeated cross-section data on the meat share in household consumption in the United States and Japan, classified by age and period, are decomposed into age, period, and birth cohort effects. Empirical evidence suggests the following: (a) the cohort effect is the largest in the United States, whereas the age effect is the largest in Japan; (b) the U.S. age effect increases for the age group 15–34, whereas the Japanese age effect decreases for the age group 25–34; (c) the Japanese period effect reveals a clear downward trend; and (d) the U.S. cohort effect decreases for the birth cohort 1900–1949. Furthermore, implications for meat producers and sellers are provided.     

世界贸易组织体制:帝国主义的新阶段——衰退的资本主义及其替换方案

世贸组织体制下的现代资本主义虽然没有出现殖民化,但垄断资本代替殖民化成为界定帝国主义的第五个要点。对国内市场和世界经济施展支配力量,掌握市场规则的霸权,企业全球化象征着资本主义处于正在衰退的阶段,它既不能保障人们享有幸福稳定的生活,也不能保障食物和生计的安全。必须以经济本土化替换企业全球化,以恢复当地社区的可行性、独立性和可持续性。