{"title":"Do lifelong experiences of land prices affect homeownership in Japan?","authors":"Kiichi Tokuoka","doi":"10.1016/j.japwor.2025.101320","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.japwor.2025.101320","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Using Japanese household data, this study tests the hypothesis that experiencing growth in land prices over a lifetime influences homeownership. To test this experience hypothesis, this study calculates the lifelong weighted average of real land price growth while estimating a parameter that determines the shape of the weight function. The study then corroborates the results using US data. The results — using both Japanese and US data — support the hypothesis and are consistent with the belief channel; that is, experiencing price growth affects homeownership by influencing expectations of returns from housing investment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46744,"journal":{"name":"Japan and the World Economy","volume":"75 ","pages":"Article 101320"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144580387","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Effects of welfare receipt on well-being: Evidence from older people in Japan","authors":"Kodai Matsumoto","doi":"10.1016/j.japwor.2025.101321","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.japwor.2025.101321","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The purpose of this study is to verify whether receiving public assistance affects the well-being of the older people. When socially nondependency norms have formed, receiving public assistance may reduce well-being. The study focuses on older people in Japan, where public assistance is minimal. Based on the findings, for individuals aged 65 years and older, the negative impact is weak and often not statistically significant. However, welfare benefits have a positive effect on elderly men while exerting a negative effect on elderly women. Moreover, regional differences are found among the working-age population, but not among the elderly.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46744,"journal":{"name":"Japan and the World Economy","volume":"75 ","pages":"Article 101321"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144580388","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Foreign exchange liberalization and exchange rate exposure: Firm-level evidence of the Japanese Automobile Industry","authors":"Teru Nishikawa , Kiyotaka Sato","doi":"10.1016/j.japwor.2025.101312","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.japwor.2025.101312","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper empirically examines the effect of the drastic amendment of the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act (FEFTA) in 1998 on the exchange rate exposure of ten Japanese automobile firms. By conducting panel estimation using the firm-level explanatory variables constructed originally, we find that (1) the degree of automobile firms’ exchange rate exposure increased significantly during the post-1998 FEFTA amendment period; (2) however, more profitable automobile firms with higher ROE and facing larger exchange rate volatility could reduce their exposures after the 1998 FEFTA amendment because they could conduct efficient operational hedging through expanding supply chains and more readily utilize efficient hedging instruments to reduce group-wide foreign exchange risk; (3) more sales in and exports to Southeast Asian countries significantly reduced automobile firms’ exposures, because they tended to invoice their exports to Southeast Asian countries not in USD but in the yen. Our findings would be insightful for Asian economies that move gradually toward foreign exchange liberalization. Efficient operational and financial hedging, as well as invoice currency choice, significantly affect the degree of exposure after foreign exchange liberalization.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46744,"journal":{"name":"Japan and the World Economy","volume":"75 ","pages":"Article 101312"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144307846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hyunjung Cho , Gahee Bak , Junyun Kim , Hongshik Lee
{"title":"The knowledge transfer patterns of multinational firms: The evidence from Korean firm-level analysis","authors":"Hyunjung Cho , Gahee Bak , Junyun Kim , Hongshik Lee","doi":"10.1016/j.japwor.2025.101313","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.japwor.2025.101313","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines one of the theoretical hypotheses of Keller and Yeaple (2013) in order to investigate how trade costs and the level of firm-level knowledge intensity of a parent firm affect its knowledge transfer to foreign affiliates. Specifically, we focus on Keller and Yeaple (2013)’s second prediction that the share of intra-firm imports from the parent declines in trade costs, but this decline is weaker in knowledge-intensive settings. Using a panel of Korean manufacturing firms over 2007–2018, we separate knowledge transfer into (a) knowledge-embedded intra-firm trade and (b) direct communication (human resource secondments). We then analyze the role of trade costs and knowledge intensity on each channel via fixed effects and dynamic panel estimations. We find that trade costs significantly reduce intra-firm exports of knowledge-embedded inputs; however, a higher knowledge intensity mitigates this effect. On the other hand, trade costs and knowledge intensity do not exert a significant influence on direct communication.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46744,"journal":{"name":"Japan and the World Economy","volume":"75 ","pages":"Article 101313"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144221449","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Corrigendum to “A nowcasting model of industrial production using alternative data and machine learning approaches” [Jpn. World Econ. 71 (2024) 101271]","authors":"Kakuho Furukawa , Ryohei Hisano , Yukio Minoura , Tomoyuki Yagi","doi":"10.1016/j.japwor.2025.101297","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.japwor.2025.101297","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46744,"journal":{"name":"Japan and the World Economy","volume":"74 ","pages":"Article 101297"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144204742","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Regret aversion in Japanese and U.S. stock markets: Analyzing the effects of market conditions","authors":"Somyung Kim , Kiyool Ohk","doi":"10.1016/j.japwor.2025.101311","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.japwor.2025.101311","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the effects of investors’ regret aversion and regret premium on investment decision-making and stock returns in the Japanese and U.S. stock markets from a behavioral finance perspective. Using regret variables, we demonstrate that regret aversion significantly impacts asset pricing. Our empirical results show that investors demand a higher regret premium when holding high-regret assets, and this relationship persists even after controlling for various firm characteristics. By analyzing market states and dynamics, we find that regret aversion is particularly strong in down markets, though its influence weakens in up markets. Market dynamics analysis reveals that regret premiums are most pronounced during simultaneous upward market trends. Robustness tests using cumulative returns and industry-adjusted short-term return reversals further confirm the significant influence of regret on stock returns. Additionally, our analysis of irrational investor behavior, including the disposition effect and psychological price barriers, shows that regret aversion is more pronounced in the context of unrealized capital losses and when asset prices deviate significantly from psychological price barriers. This study provides comprehensive insights into the impact of regret aversion and market dynamics on investor behavior and asset pricing, challenging traditional finance theories grounded in the assumption of rational decision-making.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46744,"journal":{"name":"Japan and the World Economy","volume":"74 ","pages":"Article 101311"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144069862","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Does SME policy enhance the adjustment of trade credit? Evidence from a revision of the Subcontract Act in Japan","authors":"Daisuke Tsuruta","doi":"10.1016/j.japwor.2025.101310","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.japwor.2025.101310","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this paper, we examine whether small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face severe constraints in adjusting their trade receivables by focusing on the 2016 revision of the Subcontract Act of Japan. Small businesses typically have weaker bargaining power than their customers because they are likely to depend on certain customers. Accordingly, many small businesses face severe constraints in the adjustment of their trade receivables. The Subcontract Act prohibits customer firms from receiving trade credit from small businesses over the long term, and this was enforced more strictly after 2016 following a regulatory revision. This made it easier for small businesses to adjust their trade receivables if their level was considered excessive, serving to enhance the speed of adjustment. We find that trade receivables decreased by an average of 2.1 days following the policy change for the main target firms of the Subcontract Act. Our results also show that small businesses could more rapidly adjust their trade receivables than large firms, both before and after the revision. On this basis, we conclude that while the policy effects on the level of trade receivables are significant, those on the adjustment are not.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46744,"journal":{"name":"Japan and the World Economy","volume":"74 ","pages":"Article 101310"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143894921","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Raehyung Lee , Jinki Hong , Duk Hee Lee , Jay Y. Ohm
{"title":"Influence of exclusive subcontracting on technological innovation: The case of Korean SMEs","authors":"Raehyung Lee , Jinki Hong , Duk Hee Lee , Jay Y. Ohm","doi":"10.1016/j.japwor.2025.101309","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.japwor.2025.101309","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Does subcontracting with large firms promote the innovation endeavours of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)? This study addresses this question using panel data from 22,528 observations of Korean SMEs across all industries from 2015 to 2019. We tested the hypotheses individually for five sub-industries based on Pavitt’s (1984, 1990) technological trajectory classification. The findings indicate that exclusive subcontracting negatively affects innovation endeavours, specifically in the supplier-dominated, science-based, and assembly/processing industries. By examining SMEs both as a whole and within specific industries, this study provides new evidence on the relationship between exclusivity and innovation, expanding on prior research that focused on data from limited sectors. Specially, the findings have implications for the innovation strategies of firms, industries, and countries such as South Korea, where SMEs heavily rely on transactions with large firms. These findings offer new quantitative evidence for sectoral innovation systems, emphasising different innovation strategies for each industry.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46744,"journal":{"name":"Japan and the World Economy","volume":"74 ","pages":"Article 101309"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143873866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ex-ante and ex-post evaluation of zombie firms arising from the EAS program during the COVID-19 pandemic: A study of Japanese SMEs","authors":"Akira Fukuda , Isamu Yamamoto","doi":"10.1016/j.japwor.2025.101308","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.japwor.2025.101308","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study provides an ex-ante and ex-post evaluation of the Employment Adjustment Subsidy (EAS) that the Japanese government extended to unprecedented levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using unique monthly data from firm-level surveys, we investigate the types of firms that applied for the EAS and the evolution of their subsequent performance. A key contribution of our study is that we provide an ex-post evaluation of the EAS on firm performance for approximately two years during the pandemic. As in previous studies, we confirm that majority of the firms that applied for the EAS were not zombies before the pandemic. However, their subsequent sales were much lower than those of non-applicant firms, even during the economic recovery period. This feature was conspicuous in 2021, specifically for small-scale firms in troubled sectors, unless they received extra support. The results suggest that the initial large-scale subsidy was unsuccessful in preventing the zombification of troubled firms during the pandemic.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46744,"journal":{"name":"Japan and the World Economy","volume":"74 ","pages":"Article 101308"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143833979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Global value chains and exchange rate pass-through into the import prices of Japanese industries","authors":"Fabien Rondeau , Yushi Yoshida","doi":"10.1016/j.japwor.2025.101299","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.japwor.2025.101299","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With internationally fragmented processes of production via global value chains, value-added components of a country’s export include the importer’s contributions as well as that of exporters. The exchange rate sensitivity of export price reflects these value-added components. We examine the effect of value-added contributions of exporters and importers on the degree of exchange rate pass-through by focusing on the Japanese import prices by industries. Our results show that exchange rate pass-through increases for industries with a higher contribution of exporting countries’ value added and for industries with a lower contribution of the importing country’s value added. The differentials in value added among industries help explain the dynamics of exchange rate pass-through at the industry level.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46744,"journal":{"name":"Japan and the World Economy","volume":"74 ","pages":"Article 101299"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143593875","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}