This paper investigates the efficiency of the Japanese distribution system, measured by the distribution margin. Most of the discussions on the Japanese distribution system have so far relied on institutional descriptions and anecdotal evidence, failing to substantiate the case. The present...

Standard theories of corporate ownership assume that because markets are efficient, insiders ultimately bear agency costs and therefore have a strong incentive to minimize conflicts of interest with outside investors. We show that if equity is overvalued, however, mispricing offsets agency costs...

Several studies link modern economic performance to institutions transplanted by European colonizers and here we extend this line of research to Asia. Japan imposed its system of well-defined property rights in land on some of its Asian colonies, including Korea, Taiwan and Palau. In 1939 Japan...

Preface -- Chapter 1. A Preliminary Introduction -- Chapter 2. Puzzles of the Monetary Regime in Premodern China -- Chapter 3. The Divergence between China and Japan -- Chapter 4. The Worst Currency or The Best Arrangement? -- Chapter 5. An Epilogue -- Index.

Japan's successful industrialization in the late 19th and early 20th century largely exhausted its then abundant natural resources. Rather than exemplifying rapid development in the absence of natural resources, Japan shows how laissez-faire government and successfully transplanted classical...

What is the aggregate real rate of return in the economy? Is it higher than the growth rate of the economy and, if so, by how much? Is there a tendency for returns to fall in the long-run? Which particular assets have the highest long-run returns? We answer these questions on the basis of a new...

Introduction: Takahashi Korekiyo, the Man Who Brought Japan Out of the Great Depression -- Japan’s Plunge into and Emergence from the Great Depression -- Policy Innovation in the Great Depression -- Sustainability of Public Debt under Stress -- Origins of the Economic Ideas of Takahashi...

Chapter 1 Reinsurance in America Regulatory Regimes and Markets -- Chapter 2 Dutch reinsurance and the first wave of globalization -- Chapter 3 Swedish Reinsurers in the Non-Life Sector -- Chapter 4 The ups and downs of French reinsurance in the 20th century -- Chapter 5 The ups and downs of...

Measures of productivity growth typically include in the Productivity "residual" the impacts of subequilibrium from fixity of factors, costs of adjustment, returns to scale and markups. This paper proposes a general two part framework for adjusting the residual measure to take these impacts into...