This paper examines empirically some of the reasons why Japanese manufacturing firms frequently fail to satisfy concavity conditions of the cost function. We focus on the “bubble period” in the 1980s when land was in great demand for reasons related to both production and speculation, and...

This study is an empirical attempt to investigate the effects of balance sheet deterioration of Japanese firms and banks during the 1990s on credit allocation using the Short-term Economic Survey of Enterprises. This survey includes a unique item: the proportion of firms perceiving the lending...

The purpose of this study is to investigate how firms responded to the deterioration of bank health during the financially turbulent periods in the 2000s in making investment decisions and in meeting demand for liquidity. A rise in uncertainty regarding the ability to obtain external funds may...