Faced with an aging society and major earthquake risk in the near future, promoting the improvement of existing houses is one of the most important issues in Japan. In this paper, we formulate two types of demand models for home safety: a model for barrier-free conversion and a model for seismic...

The Amami Islands are located 380 kilometers southwest of Japan proper. These islands have two economic features: they are islands that many tourists visit because of their natural resources, and they are an undeveloped area where the central government of Japan provides large fiscal subsidies....

In this paper, we investigate causal relationships among exports, imports, and economic growth in North Korea by using time series data for the period between 1964 and 2004. The empirical results show that there was Granger causality from imports to GNP in the first half of the period. However,...

This paper investigates the impacts of the BSE and Bird Flu on consumersf meat demand in Japan using the Almost Ideal demand system. BSE and Bird Flu scares bring about a fall in demand for beef and chicken respectively, and an upturn in demand for pork and fishery products, both of which are...

Medical school usually has the highest tuition fees among the university departments. The reason why students pay such expensive fees is that they estimate that their earnings will greatly increase after graduation. We construct a model about student behavior on entering college and estimate the...

In this paper, we investigate the asymmetry of adjustment costs for labour. Using monthly data on Japanese industries, we estimate a model of dynamic labour demand that incorporates adjustment costs for hiring and firing workers, and for changing working hours. Our estimates suggest the...

This paper attempts to forecast the changes in the Kansai-Areafs import and export when the East Asia Free Trade Agreements (FTA) is concluded among several countries in East and South-East Asia. We simulate the changes in the Kansai-Areafs trade in the following manner. First, we survey the...

We propose a method for decomposing interregional differentials in productivities based on the lifecycle permanent income hypothesis and conduct an empirical analysis using data from prefectural economic accounts in Japan to examine the effectiveness of this method.

Regional tourism policies in Japan have been undergoing major structural changes. We investigate the extent to which residents of the Amami Islands expect the municipality to take the initiative in implementing or financing tourism development policies. A binary choice approach is used to model...