Much attention has been paid to the feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme and the renewable portfolio standard (RPS) scheme to promote the usage of renewable energy recently. When a non-renewable generator, which is a monopolist in the retail market, is a dominant firm and renewable generators are...

Using industry- and micro-level data, this paper examines why Japan's productivity growth has been slow for such a long time and how it can be accelerated in the future. Japan's capital-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio continued to increase after 1991, which must have contributed to the...

We present an analysis of the lending/borrowing relationship between Japanese banks and Japanese firms, which form a bipartite credit network. We introduce distress to some initial node(s) (banks or firms) and allow it to propagate and contaminate other nodes in this network according to the...

This paper investigates the effect of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) on firm performance. To single out the economic effects on firm performance brought about by issuing IPOs, we employ propensity-score matching difference-in-differences estimation. Using a unique firm-level panel dataset that...

This study proposes an alternative approach of utilizing direct responses to a survey on the social security earnings test for the elderly to provide new evidence on the sensitivity of the labor supply decision of workers aged between 60 and 64 with respect to the test. Our empirical results...

We examine the response of productivity and hours worked to technology and non-technology shocks using the Japan Industrial Productivity (JIP) Database. We find that, at the aggregate level, (1) hours worked increase in response to positive technology shocks both in the manufacturing and the...

We explore the labor supply effect of the social security earnings test in Japan on those aged 65-69 years through a combined examination of the elimination of the earnings test in 1985 and its reinstatement in 2002. We present evidence showing that the effects of changes in the earnings test on...

This paper investigates the role of inter-firm transaction structure on industrial agglomeration by using Japanese firm-level transaction relationship data. First, we measure the industrial agglomeration for each industry. Next, we measure the intensity of transactions and inequalities of...

This paper empirically explores the reason why a recent surge of foreign direct investment (FDI) to developing countries has been mainly driven by less productive firms. To this end, we present a simple model of FDI with vertical division of labor in a heterogeneous firm framework. From a...

Japan's public debt is increasing exponentially, and it is a primary policy objective to restore its sustainability. In this paper, I survey the existing research on the sustainability of the public debt in Japan and find that it might be necessary either to increase the consumption tax rate by...