To analyze business fixed investment in Japan, which has been unusually volatile in recent years, we develop and apply a loglinear flexible accelerator model. We find that movements in business fixed investment are consistent with movements in output and the tax- adjusted cost of capital, both...

This paper compares the cyclical and secular behavior of Japanese and U.S. inventories at the aggregate and sectoral level, 1967-1987. While, as is well known, U.S. inventories are sharply procyclical, Japanese inventories are only mildly procyclical. In neither country do inventory and sales...

A simple real model is used to decompose movements of aggregate inventories and output in Japan during 1975 to 1987 to three components, one due to cost shocks, one due to demand shocks, and one due to' shocks from abroad. Cost shocks are estimated to account for about one tenth of the movement...