This paper reexamines Japanfs experience of the quantitative easing policy (QEP) in light of the policy responses against the recent financial and economic crisis. Central banks use various unconventional measures in the range of financial assets being purchased and in the scale of such...

This paper studies the effects of quality changes on Japan's CPI by estimating a quality adjusted price index (hedonic price index) for discounted personal computers during 1990-94. According to the result, quality adjusted prices for personal computers in Japan have declined at an annual rate...

Few will argue against the view that price stability plays an important role in promoting medium- to long-term economic growth. However, a consensus has yet to be gained as to how we should define price stability in the context of monetary policy operations and a desirable rate of inflation. In...

Since the late 1980s, the Japanese economy has experienced tremendous rise and fall of asset prices and large fluctuations of real economic activity, while the general price level has remained relatively stable. Such developments have raised the question of whether monetary policy should target...

Empirical studies of the information content of option prices have focused on exploring whether implied volatility contains useful information regarding the future fluctuation of underlying asset prices. If expectation formation in the option markets reflects all the currently available...

This paper attempts to view financial crises as the failure of arbitrage among financial markets, and takes the "Japan premium" phenomenon observed in offshore money markets as an important example in favor of this view. In addition, we reconsider, from this perspective, the open market...

In this paper, we examine implications of asset price fluctuations and resultant structural adjustments on sustained economic growth, based on Japan's experience since the latter half of the 1980s. In doing so, we offer the view that the protracted economic stagnation in Japan can be seen as a...