The main purpose of this study is to investigate how organizational slack is created and how it affects a firm’s performance. To address these questions, we construct three equations: managerial incentive function, organizational slack formation function and performance function, and we apply...

Covering issues such as deregulation, privatization, organizational reforms, and competition policy, Regulatory Reform of Public Utilities provides a comprehensive summary of regulatory reforms in Japanese public utility industries.

This study aims to investigate two important issues: whether or not public infrastructure contributes to production in the private sector, and whether or not political economy factors such as political situations, lobbying factors, and the availability of national grants for investment affect...

The main purpose of this study is to investigate how regulation, competition, governance structure, and business diversification strategy affect the cost structure of firms. By using 358 observations comprised of public utility firms and manufacturing firms from 1989 to 2002, we estimate the...

The main purpose of this study is to estimate the optimal city size which would attain maximum total surplus and sustainability, or a city size in which total benefits would equal total costs. We apply regressions to the total benefit function and the total cost function for 269 employment...

The main purpose of this study is to investigate what kind of internal and external factors most affect a firm' s costs. We consider governance structure and business diversification strategy as internal factors and regulation and competition as external factors. By using 358 observations...

This chapter summarizes regulatory structure and reforms in the rail industry in non-European countries. I have selected four regions-East Asia, Oceania, North America, and the former socialist countries-with Japan, Australia, he United States and Russia chosen for each region, respectively....

Due to the steady increase in the use of private autos in Japan, the bus business is facing hard times. In particular, bus services owned by public organizations have been struggling with increases in operating deficits and subsidies, so that recently in many cities there has been a call for...

Although it has for years had a lower unemployment rate than other industrialized countries, Japan has begun to see an increase in unemployment since its economy was hit by the recession of the late 90's. The level of a nation's unemployment is commonly seen as a barometer of its economy's...

The main purpose of this study is to determine whether public capital contributes to productivity growth and, if so, what kind of public capital contributes most. We analyze a dataset of 46 prefectures in Japan over 41 years, from 1955 to 1995, and estimate the production function as the...