In April 2013, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) introduced an inflation target of 2% with the aim of overcoming deflation and achieving sustainable economic growth. But due to lower international oil prices, it was unable to achieve this target and was forced to take further measures. Hence, in February...

To help shed light on the implications of intergenerational transfers for wealth inequality, this paper uses data for Japan and the United States to examine whether individuals who receive intergenerational transfers from their parents are more likely to leave bequests to their children than...

Since 1998, sales channels for investment trusts have expanded in Japan. We expected this to result in greater demand for investment trusts but these expectations have yet to be met. The underlying causes of investment trusts' slow growth may be due to negative net returns to individual...

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was an accident at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima, Japan, which resulted primarily from the tsunami following the Tohoku earthquake on 11 March 2011, and which led to year-long nuclear shutdown in the country. During the shutdown, Japan...

This paper compares the sources of income inequality in Japan and the United States. We exploit two longitudinal household surveys to decompose the income inequality in both countries. For Japan, we use Keio Household Panel Survey data and the five latest waves (2009-2013). For the United...

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has introduced several pay-for-performance programs in the last few years to encourage hospitals to improve quality of care and reduce costs. Some state Medicaid programs have also introduced pay-for-performance for nursing homes. Long-term care...

Substantial evidence exists that economic inequality in Asia has been growing, but the dimensions of this inequality and its growth are far less clear. This paper evaluates inequality in household incomes per capita across various demographic groups in income surveys from six middle- and...

This paper studies how an aging population affects economic performance and the effectiveness of fiscal and monetary policies. We develop a New Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with heterogeneous households, workers, and retirees. We demonstrate that an increase in the...

Commodity prices have become volatile over the past 2 decades, and their recent sharp decline has decreased the consumer price index inflation rates for most economies. While many Asian economies have benefited from low international oil and food prices, commodity exporters have suffered. Thus,...

The paper explores business cycles and growth dynamics in emerging East Asia within an ultra-low interest rate environment from the perspective of the monetary overinvestment theories of Mises and Hayek. It argues that, given a low interest rate environment in the large industrialized countries,...