This paper investigates the causal relationship between firms' bank dependence and financial constraints by utilizing the 2008 financial crisis and its impact on the Japanese economy as a natural experiment. Since the Japanese banking sector remained healthy while the corporate bond markets were...

In this paper, we investigate changes in the impacts of world crude oil prices on domestic prices in Japan. First, we employ a time-varying parameter VAR (TVP-VAR) approach to confirm that the rate of pass-through of oil prices declined, both at the aggregate and sectoral levels, for the period...

A firm’s choice of location is very important because it reveals the firm’s dynamics. Using a unique firm-level data set, we examine whether and how the presence of incumbent transaction partners (i.e., suppliers, customers, and lender banks) affects this choice. To this end, we focus on...

This paper investigates the effect of financial shocks on firms' exports. To circumvent endogeneity problems, we utilize the natural experiment provided by the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995. Using a unique firm-level dataset, we single out the effect of exogenous financial shocks on...