This paper considers a range of issues affecting Japan's contemporary economic well-being. Japan has continued toward sustained, full-employment growth, though its path has been idiosyncratic and its pace has been erratic. GDP growth in 2006 was a respectable 2.2 percent, driven by business...

Introduction: A mere decade ago Japan’s financial system, and especially its banking system, was not only the largest but the strongest in the world. Nine of the world’s top ten banks in asset size were Japanese; the Big Four Japanese securities companies were the world’s largest; and its...

Many economists dismiss the role of positive supply shocks as a cause of Japan’s deflation. Indeed, they sometimes attribute the long delay in Japan’s recovery to the mistaken view that Japan’s deflation reflects an acceleration of technological progress. Whatever the current situation in...

Many economists dismiss the role of positive supply shocks as a cause of Japan’s deflation. Indeed, they sometimes attribute the long delay in Japan’s recovery to the mistaken view that Japan’s deflation reflects an acceleration of technological progress. Whatever the current situation in...

Russia's application for accession to the WTO is currently in its final phases and may be completed by the end of 2003. In this context, this paper provides some background information on Russia's recent policy and structural reforms, the composition and geographic distribution of trade, tariff...

In this study we analyze the welfare and sectoral effects of a variety of options for the formation of free trade agreements by several major emerging market economies. The economies covered include: Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China, and South Africa (BRIICS). The analysis is carried out...

This paper addresses the issues of whether the linking of core labor standards withmultilateral or bilateral trade agreements is an effective way of promoting the improvement of labor standards. We review the determinants of core labor standards overtime and conclude that efforts to improve...

We present in this paper a computational model of world production, trade, and employment that is disaggregated by country and sector and report on the application of the model to the changes in tariffs and quantifiable nontariff barriers negotiated in the Tokyo Round that was concluded in 1979....