Using Japanese firm-level data for the period from 1994-2002, this paper examines whether a firm is chosen as an acquisition target based on its productivity level, profitability and other characteristics and whether the performance of Japanese firms that were acquired by foreign firms improves...

This paper analyzes the causes of the decline in Japan's border effect in four machinery industries (electrical, general, precision, and transportation machinery) by estimating gravity equations for Japan's international and interregional trade. In the estimation, we explicitly take account of...

The past few decades have seen a significant rise in foreign direct investment(FDI) worldwide. While Japanese companies have actively contributed to this trend, FDI in Japan continues to be much lower than in other countries. This paper explores the history of both outward and inward FDI in...

This paper empirically examines the impact of recent changes in Japan's trade patterns on domestic factor markets. According to our factor content analysis, Japan's net-exports changed in a direction that Japan has come to export more physical and human capital-intensive products over the past...

In April 2000, Japan embarked on a reform of its health care market. Along with the introduction of the long-term care insurance scheme, the government for the first time allowed for-profit operators to compete head-on with non-profit operators in the provision of at-home care services. Taking...

The system GMM estimator in dynamic panel data models which combines two moment conditions, i.e., for the differenced equation and for the model in levels, is known to be more efficient than the first-difference GMM estimator. However, an initial optimal weight matrix is not known for the system...

Investment of firms is affected by not only fundamentals factors, but liquidity constraint, ownership or corporate structure. Information structure between manager and owner is a significant factor to decide the level of investment, and deviation of investment from optimal condition. The...

In this paper, we make a comparison of industry output, inputs and productivity growth and levels between seven advanced economies (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, UK and U.S.). Our industry-level growth accounts go up to 2003, and make use of input data on labour quantity...