This paper examines how firm practices that could contribute to worker attainment of work-life balance (WLB) affect the total factor productivity (TFP) of a firm, by using panel data of Japanese firms from the 1990s. We observed a positive correlation between the WLB practices and TFP among...

We examine the impact of the strength of host countries' university research and university-industry collaboration on the propensity of Japanese multinational firms to conduct research and development (R&D) activities in these countries. We consider heterogeneous effects based on the type of R&D...

This paper investigates how the Asian Monetary Unit (AMU) Deviation Indicators for surveillance measurements among East Asian currencies are improved by changing their benchmark rates from the constant rates in 2000-2001 to time-varying rates based on their purchasing power parities (PPPs). The...

The standard approach to studying industrial agglomeration is to construct summary measures of the "degree of agglomeration" within each industry and to test for significant agglomeration with respect to some appropriate reference measures. But such summary measures often fail to distinguish...

Though Japan has surpassed South Korea in terms of research and development (R&D) in the area of regenerative medicine, South Korea has been more successful at commercialization. This paper focuses on the setup and operation of actual systems that consider the promotion of regenerative medicine...

The spatial structure of transport networks is subject to increasing returns in transportation, distance, and density economies. Transport costs between locations are thus, in general, endogenous, and are determined by the interaction between the spatial distribution of transport demand and...

This paper reviews a decade of implementation of the public long-term care insurance (LTCI) program in Japan, which is now experiencing unprecedented pressure from its rapidly aging population. This overview of the program's features focuses on the incentive mechanisms and diversity, and...

Using micro data from the 2007 Employment Status Survey, this paper analyzes the relationship between postgraduate education and labor market outcomes in Japan. According to the analysis, 1) the employment-population rates of females and elderly people with postgraduate education are higher than...

This paper examines the impact of the 1995 Kobe earthquake on the survival of manufacturing plants and their post-earthquake economic performance. The evidence from macroeconomic studies of the impact of natural disasters on economic growth is mixed with some papers finding a small negative...

Economic activities in the service sector have been increasingly important in developed countries. Despite the importance of the service sector, there are several drawbacks with a conventional way of measuring service sector productivity. This paper proposes an alternative methodology in which...