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This paper examines the efficiency of the Dojima Rice Market established in 1730 in Osaka, and closed in 1869 due to the collapse of Tokugawa Shogunate. It had already been shown that there existed the price mechanism in Dojima. However, the most significant question: Whether the world first...

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the degree of competition of consumer loan industry in Japan utilizing responses to a questionnaire survey conducted by Japan Consumer Finance Association. Estimating the cost function, we found that the industry is characterized by large scale economies....