The existing discussions about the origins of the Asian crisis can be summarized into two broad views: the "economic fundamentals" view and the "financial panic" view. This paper attempts to distinguish between these two views empirically by testing external solvency and examining intertemporal...

Is the Japanese economy really trapped at the zero interest rate bound? The question seems particularly important because recent theoretical discussions on liquidity traps suggest that undesirable dynamics such as "deflationary spiral" are likely to occur when the economy reaches the lower zero...

Since the beginning of the 1990s, Japanese inflation has been relatively stable with slight declines, while output has remained volatile with a prolonged stagnation. This paper attempts to explore possible explanations for these macroeconomic facts based on the aggregate demand and supply...

Japan's money supply and its role in monetary policy have drawn considerable attention especially since the Bank of Japan adopted its "quantitative easing" scheme in March 2001. This paper focuses on the role of money supply as an information variable and reexamines the empirical relationship...