Using two-period panel data from the Nippon Life Insurance Research Institute, this paper tests the hypothesis that an increase in the self-pay ratio of medical expenditures associated with the Japanese health insurance reforms of April 2003 reduced household medical expenditures. We find that...

This paper analyzes the determinants of government debt and social security for the old in a closed-economy, overlapping-generation model. Under the probabilistic voting, the model presents (i) an intergenerational link of resource allocation via debt and social security; (ii) multiple political...

This paper examines whether the stock split bubble in Japan burst by not only reformed system, but also Livedoor-shock. It is difficult to identify the effects of the both events, because they occurred in the same month (January, 2006). Thus, I identify both effects by dividing the samples into...

This article analyzed the production and marketing activities of the Agricultural Co-operatives Association established in Takedate Village in the Tsugaru district of Aomori Prefecture in 1907. In the early stages of the Meiji period, this area was considered as backward in terms of commodity...

The standard economic model of intertemporal decision making assumes that a single discount rate applies equally to discount (dis)utility from all different sources. However, studies such as psychology and behavioral economics have provided evidence that people might discount (dis)utility from...

This paper investigates a principal-agent model in which an owner (principal) optimizes a contract with a manager (agent) delegated to undertake an investment project. In the model, we explore the effects of costly exploration by which the manager learns the real value of development cost. We...

This paper analyzes intraday volatility of the stock markets of mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, and the US for the period of two months around the Lehman crisis. Specifically, dividing the observation period from July 15 to November 28, 2008 into two sub-periods at the failure of Lehman...

We extend the analysis of Campbell et al. (1993) on the relationship between the first-order daily stock return autocorrelation and stock market trading volume by allowing abrupt and smooth transition structures using lagged stock returns as a transition variable. Using U.S. stock market data,...

Recent development in behavioral decision theory reveals the important role of decision environment in the consumer's evaluation and choice processes. Often it is referred as "decision framing." Of particular interest is the online shopping environment, where buyers are usually forced to make...

This paper introduces an overlapping-generations model with earnings hetero- geneity and borrowing constraints. The labor income tax and the allocation of tax revenue across social security and forward intergenerational public goods are determined in a bidimensional majoritarian voting game...