The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of a 1993 relaxation of the restrictions governing the underwriting operations of Japanese banks on bond issues in the Euro–yen and Japanese corporate bond markets. Evidence is presented to suggest that the relaxation of the restrictions...

This paper estimates models for the retail price of gasoline in Tokyo and Osaka based on recent game theory emphasizing the importance of forward-looking behaviour by firms. Using monthly data for the 1990s, this paper presents evidence consistent with the theory that future changes in the...

The purpose of this paper is to explain variations in the divorce rates across prefectures in Japan over the 20-year period between 1982 and 2002. This paper examines the various factors which may affect divorce rates including: the effects of the generosity of social welfare; the income of...

This paper compares the asymptotic efficiency of a number of two step estimators developed for estimating a static linear regression model with serially correlated errors when some observations are missing. A Monte Carlo simulation is used to illustrate the results in small samples.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of reputation in the matching of lead underwriters and issuing firms in the straight corporate bond market in Japan. While the existing literature already investigates how the issuing firm chooses its lead underwriter at the time of issue, this...

This paper undertakes a time series analysis of the Japanese divorce rate using annual data over the period 1964–2006. One of the key innovations of the paper is to use court decisions on divorce disputes to construct an index that seeks to measure how the probability of success in a divorce...

This paper analyzes the large sample properties of several two step estimators that have recently been suggested for estimating autoregressive moving-average models. As these estimators typically involve generated regressors, the generated regressor literature suggests that, in general, they...

The purpose of this paper is to derive the asymptotic distributions of some Lagrange Multiplier (LM) tests for unit roots in time series models in the presence of missing observations, and to provide evidence on the small sample properties of these tests. LM tests for a unit root in a...

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of firms switching the lead underwriter they use to underwrite their first and second public issues of straight corporate bonds in Japan between 1994 and 2002. In particular, the paper focuses on the role of the lead underwriter's...