Contrary to the objective of a major corporate pension reform in Japan to enhance retirement income security, and despite the increased relative tax benefits of externally-funded plans, the number of firms that do not sponsor externally-funded defined benefit plans or defined contribution plans...

We investigate the significant effects of the September 11 attacks on the Japanese stock market, one of the largest markets in the world. Although several studies have examined the impact of the attacks on the domestic U.S. stock market, few studies have analyzed their impact on the foreign...

This study examines the relation between bank equity ownership and corporate hedging in Japan, an economy where banks are allowed, to a certain limit, to hold shares of firms to which they lend funds. The results show that bank equity ownership is positively related to the corporate usage of...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss whether insurers could have a strong motivation for M&A in the future because they need to survive within the industry under oversaturated market conditions. Recently, Japanese non-life insurance markets, mainly the automobile insurance market,...

Comparing loans made by main banks to those made by life insurance companies, we test for the existence of specialization in corporate lending. Using a detailed data set with information on individual loans made in Japan in the early 1980s, we empirically examine credit specialization on the...

Deregulation and the succeeding changes, such as forming group affiliation, demutualization, and new entry from foreign countries, are widespread and worldwide phenomenon in the life insurance industry. This study examines impacts of the deregulation and the succeeding changes on efficiency of...