Inspired by the observed contrasting patterns of industrial distribution in East Asia and Europe, this paper conducts an empirical clarification of the difference in spatial relationships among countries within a region for the electric machinery industry by use of spatial econometric analysis....

This study attempts to measure the welfare gain caused by new retailer entries. In Japan, following the deregulation of entry restriction on large-scale retail stores, specialty supermarket stores, and convenience stores expanded their market share. We estimate the consumer benefit by...

This paper investigates why plants belonging to multi-plant firms are more likely to exit. Using Japanese plant data linked to firm data we study the process of plant closure among domestic multi-plant firms as well as multi-plant multinationals. As elsewhere in the literature these...

This paper examines the agglomeration effects of multinational firms on the location decisions of first-time Japanese manufacturing investors in China for the period 1995-2007. This is accomplished by exploiting newly constructed measures of inter-firm backward and forward linkages formed in a...

This paper examines the agglomeration effects of multinational firms on the location decisions of first-time Japanese manufacturing investors in China for the period 1995-2007. This is accomplished by exploiting newly constructed measures of inter-firm backward and forward linkages formed in a...

This paper provides new evidence on international productivity gaps; this evidence is obtained from large-scale rm-level data from the French and Japanese manufacturing industries using non-parametric methodologies designed to overcome confidentiality restrictions. Our primary finding is that...

This paper examines the agglomeration effects of multinational firms on the location decisions of first-time Japanese manufacturing investors in China for the period 1995-2007. This is accomplished by exploiting newly constructed measures of inter-firm backward and forward linkages formed in a...

From the late 1980s, Japanese manufacturers have begun the relocation of their production sites from Japan to low-wage East Asian countries such as China and Thailand. Partly due to this plant relocation, imports of manufacturing goods from these low-wage countries in East Asia increased...

This paper studies the process of plant exit and productivity growth in Japan during the ‘lost decade’. A productivity decomposition shows the low rate of productivity growth at the aggregate level to be due to slow within plant productivity growth and a small contribution from the entry and...

In the literature there is substantial evidence that a plant is more likely to be closed down if it is owned by a firm with other plants or is owned by a multinational enterprise (MNE). But does ownership or multi-plant status matter for which plants are closed? Using Japanese data we study...