The purpose of this paper is twofold: to identify the origin of actual Japanese crisis and the underlying conditions which conducted Japan into the recession; to examine why all economic stimulus Japanese government proposes fail to stop the decline of Japanese economy.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to identify the origin of actual Japanese crisis and the underlying conditions which conducted Japan into the recession; to examine why all economic stimulus Japanese government proposes fail to stop the decline of Japanese economy.

During the 80's, Microelectronical Systems (MEMS) have emerged as a new technological paradigm in the United States. From early one, some of Japanese private companies, who had already been engaged in a fierce technology race to develop semiconductors, decided to engage their R&D efforts in this...

Every year, riots cause a substantial number of fatalities in less-advanced countries. This paper explores the role of agricultural output shocks in explaining riots. Our theory predicts a negative relationship between the level of rioting and the deviation of the actual output from the average...

This study estimates the effects of formal home care on hospitalizations and doctor visits. We compare the effects of medically- and non-medically-related home care and investigate heterogeneous effects by age group and informal care availability. Two-part models are estimated, using data from...

This chapter surveys recent developments in agglomeration theory within a unifying framework. We highlight how locational fundamentals, agglomeration economies, the spatial sorting of heterogeneous agents, and selection effects affect the size, productivity, composition, and inequality of...

Does a better cultural milieu make a city more livable for residents and improve its business environment for firms? I address this question by computing a measure of cultural specialization based on detailed occupational data for 346 U.S. metropolitan areas. I then estimate hedonic wage and...

Does a better cultural milieu make a city more livable for residents and improve its business environment for firms? I compute a measure of cultural specialization for 346 U.S. metropolitan areas and ask if differences in cultural environment capitalize into housing price and wage differentials....

Measuring capabilities is a major challenge for the operationalization of the capability approach. Structural equation models (SEM) are being increasingly used as one possible methodology for estimating capabilities, but a certain skepticism remains about their appropriateness. In this paper, we...

This paper provides evidence that the reduction in applied most-favored nation (MFN) tariffs resulting from a decrease in preferential tariffs is restricted to (or significantly larger in) high-tariff members of preferential trade agreements (PTAs). This heterogeneous impact is observed only...