This study investigates what factors determine students’ academic performance in five major economies in East Asia, using the dataset from the 2007 survey of Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). We explicitly consider initial maturity differences, endogeneity of class...

We examine how social security programs have affected the labor force participation (LFP) of the elderly over the past forty years in Japan. Using publicly available data, we construct forwardlooking incentive measures for inducing retirement, to ascertain the actual changes in the generosity of...

This paper examines whether social security programs induce a withdrawal of the elderly from the labor force and create jobs for the young in Japan. The key messages are summarized as follows. First, our historical overview suggests that young unemployment issues have not motivated social...

Evidence on the effect of the social security earnings test on the labor supply of the elderly continues to be mixed. We utilize micro-level data compiled by the Japanese government in order to examine the labor supply effect for those aged 65-69 before and after two major reforms of the social...

The interval in time between leaving a career job and exit from the labor force is especially long for Japanese employees and separation from the career job often takes place due to mandatory retirement in Japan. Using micro-level data compiled by the Japanese Government, we examine determinants...

In this study, we examined the differences between smoking and drinking in regard to their associations with socioeconomic factors among about 7,000 Japanese workers. Using microdata from nationwide surveys in Japan, we estimated bivariate probit models to jointly explore how smoking and...

We examine how regional inequality affects happiness and self-rated health at an individual level by using micro data from nationwide surveys in Japan. Individuals who live in the area of high inequality tend to report themselves as both unhappy and unhealthy, even after controlling for various...

Social security tends to be unsustainable in nature in that it reduces individuals' demand for children as a measure to support their old age, which in turn undermines the financial base of social security. Using a simple overlapping-generations model with endogenous fertility and income...

We attempt to examine the extent to which poverty in childhood adversely affects success in adulthood, using micro data from nationwide surveys in Japan and taking into account the recursive structure of life outcomes. We use retrospective assessments of income class at the age of 15, because...

We investigated how regional income inequality is associated with the individual assessment of happiness based on micro data from nationwide surveys in Japan. Our multilevel analysis using logit and ordered logit models confirmed that individuals who live in areas of high inequality tend to...