A number of studies have revealed that the effect of industrial policy on productivity growth is negative. Is this because industrial policy fails to control the activities of firms, or because it can effectively control them? This paper attempts to answer these questions, using firm-level data...

We examine the determinants and effects of technology acquisition licensing, using firm-level data between 1957 and 1970. Our results indicate that in technology acquisition licensing, the government screened a firm's application based on (i) the industry that the firm belonged to and (ii) its...

This paper investigates whether or not the natural selection mechanism (NSM) of economic Darwinism works in severe recessions. Although standard firm models imply the importance of NSM in an economy by showing firm's rational behavior on entry, surviv-ing, and exit leads to macro-level TFP...

Productivity convergence among countries has been investigated extensively with mixed results. This paper extends the analysis to the firm level to shed light on the debate of convergence or non-convergence. We find productivity convergence among firms widely in Japan, in both manufacturing...

We examine the cause and effect of technology acquisition policy on firm performance, using firm-level data between 1957 and 1970. Our results indicate that in the technology acquisition licensing, the government screened a firm's application, based on (i) the industry that the firm belonged to...

This paper presents a model of firm-level productivity growth that distinguishes between innovation and technology diffusion, and then applies the model to a large-scale data set of Japanese manufacturing and non-manufacturing firms between 1994 and 2000. We find both innovation and diffusion...