This paper uses Japanese data to investigate the relationship between monetary policy and the yield curve. We find that the response of the yield curve depends in an important way on the maintained hypothesis about how monetary policy affects the economy. Under the liquidity effect maintained...

The pace of capital accumulation in East Asia has simply been stunning. In this paper, we investigate sources of this fast accumulation and make projections for the future. We estimate a “convergence” equation for physical capital per capita, which is derived from an open economy growth...

type="main" <p>It has been found that the pass-through of the exchange rate and import prices to domestic prices has weakened over time. The most recent research, however, shows that this trend may have been reversed. Recent studies have applied various time series methods to the Japanese data, and...</p>

I study the role of internal migration in income convergence across regions in Japan. Neoclassical theory predicts that migration should have been an important source of convergence. Regression results, however, suggest that migration did not contribute to convergence. I investigate the...

This paper estimates dynamic effects of public capital on output per capita. Based on an open economy growth model, I derive a version of the income convergence equation augmented with public capital. This equation is estimated using panel data of United States and Japanese regions. Sensible...

It is sometimes argued that the central banks influence the private economy in the short run through controlling a specific component of high powered money, not its total amount. Using a structural VAR approach, this paper evaluates this claim empirically, in the context of the Japanese economy....

This paper addresses three questions: (1) why does the share of skilled workers in regional population tend to be higher in wealthier regions? (2) what determines changes in this share over time? and (3) why is it that internal migration tends to raise average skill levels of the receiving...

A panel data estimation finds a high speed of income convergence among the U.S. states. However, initial incomes show a pattern which is difficult to explain by the estimated model. A simulation study shows that this pattern can be explained much more naturally when we assume that true...