This paper provides an overview of the first wave of the Japanese Study of Ageing and Retirement (hereafter "JSTAR"). Using this rich and unique dataset, we describe in detail how middle-aged and elderly Japanese live in terms of economic, social, health, and family status. In this project, our...

In light of the recent movement toward regional integration through bilateral/plurilateral FTAs in East Asia, this paper attempts to estimate the impacts of several FTA scenarios in East Asia, using a CGE model. Although most previous simulation studies on the impacts of FTAs focus only on the...

We propose a new model for policy analysis of banking crises (or systemic bank runs) based on the monetary framework developed by Lagos and Wright (2005). If banks cannot enforce loan repayment and have to secure loans by collateral, a banking crisis due to coordination failure among depositors...

We construct a search-theoretic model à la Lagos and Wright (2005), that has multiple steady-state equilibria, one of which may be interpreted as a state of financial crisis. The key ingredient is the collateral-secured loan in the decentralized matching market, in which the borrowers must put...

This paper compares the 1995 Kobe earthquake with the more recent one in Tohoku. The impact of the recent earthquake on industrial production was much larger and long-lasting than that of the 1995 earthquake. We find that very little of this can be explained by differences in government...

During the recent decade of declining foreign direct investment (FDI) barriers, small domestic firms disproportionately contracted while large multinational firms experienced a substantial growth in Japan's manufacturing sector. This paper quantitatively assesses the impact of FDI globalization...

This paper analyzes the relationship between the use of stock options and productivity by employing firm-level panel data from the Basic Survey of Japanese Business Structure and Activities. According to the analysis, the use of stock options has a positive impact on firm productivity....

In this paper, we examine the nature of the shocks that hit the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Japan during the global financial crisis that occurred in the wake of the massive number of non-performing subprime loans in the U.S. We examine how the SMEs responded to the shocks,...

Using panel survey data with comparable variables, this study tests whether certain sets of hypotheses that are related to rational-choice and purposive-action theories of birth behavior hold in Korea as well as in Japan. In a previous study, Yamaguchi (2009) tested similar sets of hypotheses...

We study the impact of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake on firm dynamics and obtain implications for the recent Great East Japan Earthquake. By using unique micro-level data for a maximum of 90,000 firms, we examine the impact of the earthquake on firms' default, relocation, and investment...