This paper explores, using panel data of Japan, whether automobile inspections help to reduce accidents. Two innovations introduced by this paper are the control of endogeneity by the 2sls fixed effects model and the taking into account of norm enforcement in order to control the omitted...

In the present paper, the inverted-U shape relationship between growth and inequality found in Chen(2003), is reexamined. We decompose productivity growth into efficiency improvement, capital accumulation and technological progress and then ascertain their determinants by employing a fixed...

This paper uses prefecture-level panel data from Japan, spanning the period 1989–2003, to examine the influence of social norms and fractionalization on voting behavior. The key findings obtained from analysis via the fixed effects estimation, which controls for unobserved prefecture-specific...

This paper examines the cubic form hypothesis and the flying geese pattern hypothesis of income distribution. We use time series data for the Gini coefficients of Korea for 1961-2006 and panel data calculated based on a household income survey for the period 1998-2003. We show; (1) The Korean...

This paper used the Fédération International de Football Association (FIFA) world ranking points data to examine how linguistic heterogeneity has an impact on technology transfer from the most developed countries. The major findings are: (1) the learning effect from the most developed...

This research aimed to explore how a team payroll has an effect on team performance as measured by the winning percentage using panel data of the Japan Professional Baseball League; separately for each of the Central and the Pacific Leagues. The major finding is that a team payroll has a...

Can professional sports teams develop their fan base and increase attendance by using players from their same hometown? In the Japanese Professional Baseball League, the starting pitcher is announced prior to the game in the Pacific League but not in the Central League. Considering...

This paper uses Japanese prefecture-level data for the years 1979 and 1996 to examine how the relationship between government size and life satisfaction changes. The major findings are: (1) Government size has a detrimental effect on life satisfaction when government size impedes economic growth...

Using individual level data (the Japanese General Social Survey), this paper aims to explore how interaction between genders contributes to the cessation of smoking in Japan, where females are distinctly less inclined to smoke than males. Controlling for various socioeconomic factors and...

Using individual data from Japan, this paper investigates how a neighbor’s immobility is associated with individual investment in social capital. It is found that local homeownership has a positive effect on individual investment and that this effect for individual homeowners is about 2.5...