In this article, we examine the change in the wages of regular employed workers through the 1990s and the 2000s using Japanese establishment level data drawn from the Basic Survey on Wage Structure. Contrary to previous literature that found that the wages in the manufacturing industries...

This paper describes the construction of the Regional-Level Japan Industrial Productivity Database (R-JIP), which covers the period from 1970 through 2008 and comprises annual industrial output and factor input data of Japan's 47 prefectures classified by 23 industry. Output is measured in terms...

This paper empirically examines the impact of board diversity on firms' innovative activity, taking advantage of the unique firm-level dataset in the period 2000-2011 in Japan. We constructed measurements of the degree of board diversity by using various characteristics of board members such as...

This study applies Davis, Haltiwanger, and Schuh's method (1996) to measure job creation/destruction rates of establishments in manufacturing firms using Japanese Economic Census data in 2006 and 2009. Results state that the net domestic employment decrease mainly arises from firms without...

This paper examines how firms' decision to start exporting is affected by the availability of information on export markets. Unlike existing studies which focus on information sharing among firms, we examine the information provided by firms' top lender banks (main banks). Specifically, using a...

This paper examines the effect of the structure of supply chain networks on productivity and innovation capability through knowledge diffusion, using large firm-level panel data for Japan. We find that ties with distant suppliers improve productivity, as measured by sales per worker, possibly...

Under unstable global economic conditions and an increasing competition for customers in the emerging markets of lower income countries, Japanese automotive parts manufacturers and assemblers are striving to minimize their procurement costs to remain competitive. Applying stochastic...

Using firm-level data for the Japanese manufacturing sector, we examine characteristics of internationalized firms, i.e., firms engaging in export and/or foreign direct investment (FDI), and compare these characteristics with those for selected European countries. We find that internationalized...

This study examines the effect of Japanese aid-funded technical assistance programs in the Indonesian foundry industry funded, applying difference-in-differences propensity score matching estimation to a unique firm-level dataset. The major finding is that the average effect of the aid programs...

Poverty reduction in rural Africa necessitates diversification of income sources from agriculture to nonfarm activities. Clustering of micro-enterprises in rural areas can promote nonfarm income. This study examines the determinants of growth in sales and skill levels of microenterprises in a...