This study proposes a model that describes banks' decisions about their capital structures and analyzes the regulation of the capital adequacy ratio (CAR), that is, the ratio of equity finance to risky assets. The aim of this study is to investigate two questions. First, which level of CAR is...

This paper reports a survey result conducted in May 2012. We sent a questionnaire to 3,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), whose main business sector is manufacture and which locate in Aichi Prefecture, one of the largest economic regions in Japan. 803 SMEs answered this...

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the degree of competition of consumer loan industry in Japan utilizing responses to a questionnaire survey conducted by Japan Consumer Finance Association. Estimating the cost function, we found that the industry is characterized by large scale economies....