This paper surveys the recent literature that empirically examines foreign direct investment (FDI) in Japan. This paper focuses on the quantitative evidence on the following questions: 1) Did FDI in Japan accelerate economic growth? 2) What are limiting factors for FDI in Japan? 3) Are there any...

This paper reviews the impacts of natural disasters on firm location choice and real estate prices. More specifically, we first study if awareness of possible natural disasters affects location choice. Then, we investigate the impacts of natural disasters on land prices. We collect a unique...

In 2011, Switzerland announced a floor for the Swiss franc, and it immediately depreciated by 10 percent. Many argue that depreciations should not matter for Switzerland's export basket because luxury brands and high value added products predominate, and these should compete on quality rather...

This paper, using Japanese firm-level data, presents findings about innovative activities in the service sector and the role of patents and trade secrets on innovation. According to the analysis, first, service firms have fewer product innovations than do manufacturing firms, but the...

This paper analyzes the determinants of the presence and the number of female and foreign directors among Japanese companies. First, listed and long-established companies, subsidiaries, and unionized companies tend not to have female directors. On the other hand, owner-managed companies are...

Firms operate in complex supplier-customer networks that potentially range over long distances. However, the effects of supplier networks and supplier location on firm performance are largely unknown. This paper characterizes the domestic production network in Japan using detailed buyer-supplier...

This paper quantifies the spillover effect of exogenous shocks, such as earthquakes, on other firms through the supply chain network. Combining micro data on inter-firm transaction networks and geographic information systems, we examine firms' sales growth and transaction relationships outside...

Headquarters play an important role in modern companies, but the downsizing of headquarters is often advocated as a way to improve organizational efficiency. The size of headquarters is closely related to the centralization/decentralization of decision making, and a theoretically optimal level...

In this paper, we examine how job assignments affect gender pay gap and the promotion rate of female workers using personnel records from a large Japanese manufacturing firm, where newly-hired male and female workers are systematically assigned to different workplaces ("gender job segregation")....

This paper examines whether the expansion of applicant eligibility for student loans promotes the college enrollment of high school graduates. Japan Student Services Organization revised the student loan system in 1999, and one of the revisions was the change of eligibility standard based on...