Why are product prices in online markets dispersed in spite of very small search costs? To address this question, we construct a unique dataset from a Japanese price comparison site, which records price quotes offered by e-retailers as well as customers’clicks on products, which occur...

Since the middle of 1990s, the Japanese banks have continuously tilted their asset portfolio towards the government bonds, reducing their lending to …rms. In this paper, we investigate the causes and consequences of such changes in the banks behaviors, by introducing the bank’s asset...

This paper explores the development of inequalities in income, consumption, and wealth among Japanese households from the 1980s to the 2000s, a period that spans the bursting of Japan’s bubble economy (1991Q1) and the banking crisis (1997Q4). We find that inequality of income and...

We propose a new method to estimate quality adjusted commercial property price indexes using real estate investment trust (REIT) data. Our method is based on the present value approach, but the way the denominator (i.e., the discount rate) and the numerator (i.e., cash flows from properties) are...

This paper examines a global games model of speculative attacks in which speculators can choose to attack any one of a number of targets. In the canonical global games model of speculative attacks with a single target, it is well known that there exists a unique equilibrium that survives...

We incorporate social influence into implementation theory, and highlight the manner in which an informed agent feels guilty with regard to disobeying an uninformed principal’s wishes. The degree of this feeling depends on the agent’s expectation of others’ behavioral modes....

We examine the impact of financial regulation and innovation on bubbles and crashes due to limited arbitrage by modeling timing games among strategic arbitrageurs whose rationality is not commonly known. An unproductive company raises funds by issuing shares, and for purchasing shares,...

Asset prices have responded in a surprising way to the announcement of a policy package in late 2012 by Shinzo Abe, then the President of the LDP.The package (henceforth, Abenomics) has placed a central focus on aggressive monetary easing. The yen has weakened by about 20% against the dollar...

Research on Japanese corporate finance typically starts from the premise that banks decisively affect corporate behavior. Crucial to this premise in the Japanese context are two laims: that the strength of a firm’s relationship with a specific bank (and the funds that the bank makes...