Using Japanese regional data, we have obtained estimates of the income elasticity of demand deposits that are positive, have values that are close to one, and are statistically significantly different from zero, not only during the period of the low interest rate policy implemented after 1995...

We use annual Japanese prefecture data on income, population, demand deposits, and saving deposits from 1992 to 1997 to investigate the issue of whether there exists a stable money demand function under the low interest rate policy. The evidence appears to support the contention that there does...

We use the methodology of Kalemli-Ozcan, Sorensen, and Yosha ( 2003) to calculate the degree of insurance among the Japanese prefectures. Prefectural-level data for fiscal years 1975 to 1999 are used to analyze the impact of idiosyncratic shocks to regional income. The results indicate that...

To appropriate additional sources of fiscal revenue, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) started direct underwriting of new deficit-financing government bond, (GBs) (BOJ underwriting) on November 25, 1932. This paper examines the BOJ's underwriting policymaking process through the use of newly available...

A new technique is demonstrated for the simultaneous estimation of potential output and the Phillips curve. In this paper, we define potential output as the non-accelerating inflation level of output (NAILO). The NAILO is not a simple trend of actual output. Instead, it is the critical level of...

Hayashi and Prescott speculate that the anemic performance of the Japanese economy since the early 1990s can be understood in terms of how any "well functioning" private sector might react to an exogenous productivity shock. In particular, they downplay the role of monetary and financial factors...

Data revisions and the availability of a longer sample offer the opportunity to reconsider empirical findings that suggest that in the OECD countries national saving responds non-monotonically to fiscal policy. The paper confirms that the circumstance most likely to give rise to a non-monotonic...

In this paper, we carry out qualitative and quantitative analyses of impacts of factor market distortions on Japan's economic stagnation in the 1990s, thereby showing that resolution of structural impediments is essential for the restoration of sustained economic growth. Distortions in factor...

Japan's fiscal position is deteriorating continuously, and some argue that a debt write-off through managed inflation will be inevitable if public debt is to increase at the present pace. This article will first examine if inflation is an inevitable component of the attempt to solve the current...