Magnesium (Mg) alloys are suitable materials for weight reduction in vehicles because of their low density of 1.7g/cm3 and high specific strength. The effect of Mg substitution for conventional steel parts in a vehicle on total energy consumption and CO2 emissions was evaluated through life...

Energy consumption has increased remarkably over the past half century mainly due to increasing population and economic development. The influences of these two factors are considered. In most developed countries, such as Japan, France, Germany and Korea, the growth rate of energy consumption is...

This paper presents a new concept of 'value" which is developed in the author's general equilibrium framework (1988a). A traditional concept of labor value and a relatively new concept of commodity value are uniformly shown from this "value" as its normalized forms. A so-called fundamental...

The thoroughly revised second edition of this authoritative Handbook, complete with new chapters, comprehensively examines the current status and future directions of model-based systems in decision support and their application to sustainable development planning.

In the early stages of economic development, the migration of unskilled workers contributes to labor-intensive manufacturing production. In middle-income countries, however, the migration of skilled workers becomes the more important factor in economic progress. Evaluating the skill content of...

The Armington procedure (AP) has become increasingly popular in agricultural trade analyses. However, some arguments have arisen concerning the relevance of using the procedure for such analyses. This study examines the assumptions commonly made when using the Armington procedure and suggests...

The recent development of rice policies in Japan are summarized. The impact of the minimum access (MA) import on the supply and demand balance of rice, and the rice diversion areas in the future is also predicted.

Rice is the most important staple food in the People's Republic of China (PRC). In many Asian countries rice appears to have become an inferior good, with income increases leading to declines in per capita consumption as other food products are substituted for rice. In this study, human rice...

In this research, the quality of foreign japonica rices was evaluated in terms of prices relative to Japanese domestic retail prices. Then, retail prices, consumer benefit, and competitiveness among the foreign rices in the Japanese market were estimated assuming those rices were imported at...