Introduction to Japanese Economy
Fall 2011
Syllabus
2012/02/02
Ryoichi Imai
International Student Center, Kyushu University
imryoichi@isc.kyushu-u.ac.jp
http://homepage3.nifty.com/ronten/JTWhome.htm
Contents
2. Organization, Attendance, and Other Requirements
The course is designed to provide some introductory knowledge of Japanese economy. Students will learn the essence of historical and institutional background of Japanese Economy. In this course, we will focus on the structural issue of Japanese economy as a background of the 10 year depression since the crush of the bubble economy in 1990.
Key words of this course: Corporate organization and governance, financial system and corporate groups, competition and business strategies, exchange rate regimes and international capital flows, productivity gap across industries, aging society, education and meritocracy, economic development and class stratification, and others.
Organization, Attendance, and Other Requirements
Lecture notes are to be uploaded on the course website.
The class starts with a series of lecture given by the instructor. Later the students present some selected reading materials. Each course attendant is required to do at least ONE oral presentations of the articles assigned by the instructor. The presenter must make a set of PowerPoint Slides. There is one midterm or final examination, which might be open-book or take home one.
None. Any knowledge on macroeconomics or microeconomics will be useful.
Class Attendance and Discussion 20%
Presentation 40%
Examination 40%
You will get 2 credits by satisfying the course requirements specified above.
If you need 3 credits to accommodate JTW credits to your home University's credit rule, you have to do an extra homework, of which the detail will be specified later.
Schedule and Readings (subject to Change)
PART I: Lecture
1. Introduction
We will review the development of Japanese economy during the last two decades focusing on the four crisis episodes:
Crash of the Bubble Economy 1990
Asia Currency Crisis 1997-98
Crash of the IT bubble 2000.
The 'Subprime' Crisis 2007-
Hayashi, Fumio and Edward C. Prescott [2002], The 1990s in Japan: A Lost Decade, Review of Economic Dynamics, 206-235.
Prescott, Edward C. [2002], Prosperity and Depression, American Economic Review, 92(2), 1-15.
Hoshi, Takeo and Anil K. Kashyap (2004), Japan's Financial Crisis and Economic Stagnation, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 18(1), 3-26.
Krugman, Paul (1994), The Myth of Asia's Miracle, Foreign Affairs.
2. Introduction 2
3. Introduction 3
4. Introduction 4
5.
Corporate Governance
Iwai, Katsuhito (2002), The Nature of the
Business Corporation: Its Legal Structure and Economic Functions, Japanese
Economic Review 53(3), 243-273.
6.
Competition
Porter, Michael E. and Mariko Sakakibara (2004) Competition in
Japan, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 18(1), 27-50.
Table on competition
and successful industries.
7.
Labor
The
Japanese Employment System (Rebick: Ch. 2)
Gordon,
Robert J. (2006), Issues
in the Comparison of Welfare Between Europe and the United States.
8.
More on Labor Market
Issues
9.
Inequality
Autor, Katz, and Kearney (2007), The Polarization of
the U.S. Labor Market
10. Extra
11. Extra
PART II: Students'
Presentations
Underlines show the leaders.
12. (1/10) Shirahase (2007) Women's Economic
Status and Fertility: Japan in Cross-National Perspective in The Political
Economy of Japan's Low Fertility
Estevez-Abe (2007) Gendering the Varieties of Capitalism: Gender Bias
in Skills in Social Policies in The Political Economy of Japan's Low
Fertility
Presenters: Kelly, Alex, Elisabeth, Haewon, Jung Yeon
13. (1/17) The Old Japan Politics, 1955-1993, Ch.4 of Japan
Transformed: Political Change and Economic Restructuring
Japan's post-war political economy, Ch.5 of Japan Transformed: Political
Change and Economic Restructuring
Presenters: Amanda, Erika, Thomas, Camille, Jung Yeon, Fretchie
14. (1/24) Japan’s New Politics, Ch.6 of Japan
Transformed: Political Change and Economic Restructuring
Japan's new political economy, Ch.7 of Japan
Transformed: Political Change and Economic Restructuring
Presenters: Perna, Natasha, Erika, David,
Alyssa
15. (1/31) Kenjo (2007)
Employment Options: Japan in Comparative Perspective, in The Political
Economy of Japan's Low Fertility
Boling (2007) Policies to Support
Working Mothers and Children in Japan, in The Political Economy of
Japan's Low Fertility
Presenters: Dasom, Ucky, Fretchie, Hui-Seung,
So Yeong
16. Final Exam (might be replaced by a Take-Home Examination)
Final Take-home Examination (Due: Monday, February 13th)
Extra Readings
General
Hiroshi Yoshikawa (2001), The Aging of Society and Fiscal Policy, in Japan's Lost Decade, International House of Japan.
Hiroshi Yoshikawa (2001), Exchange Rates, in Japan's Lost Decade, International House of Japan.
Hiroshi Yoshikawa (2001), Japan's Manufacturing and Nonmanufacturing Industries, in Japan's Lost Decade, International House of Japan.
Financial System
*Hoshi, Takeo and Anil K. Kashyap (2004) Costs and Benefits of Keiretsu Financing, in Corporate Financing and Governance in Japan, Cambridge MA: MIT Press
Hoshi, Takeo and Anil K. Kashyap (2005), Solutions to Japan's Banking Problems: What Might Work and What Definitely Will Fail, in Reviving Japan's Economy, MIT Press
Hoshi Takeo (2006) Economics of the Living Dead.
Allen, F. and M. Zhao (2007) The Corporate Governance Model of Japan: Shareholders are not Rulers.
Baumol, Litan, and Schramm (2007), Capitalism: The Big-Firm Wealthy Economies: Preventing Retreat and Stagnation, in Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity., Yale University Press.
Iwamoto, Yasushi (2002), The Fiscal Investment and Loan Program in Transition, Journal of the Japan and International Economics 16, 583-604.
Technology and Innovation
Gordon, Robert J. [2000], Does the "New Economy" Measure up to the Great Inventions of the Past?, Journal of Economic Perspectives 14, 49-74.
*Scotchmer (2004), Innovation and Incentives, Ch.2.
Global Financial Crises
Allen and Gale (2007), Understanding Financial Crises, Ch.1
Ito, Takatoshi (2004) Exchange rate regimes and monetary policy cooperation: Lessons from East Asia and Latin America, Japanese Economic Review, 55(3), 240-266,
McKinnon, Ronald, and Kenichi Ohno (1997), Dollar and Yen, MIT Press.
Adrian, T., and H. S. Shin (2008) Liquidity and Financial Contagion
The Becker-Posner Blog: Bail Out the Big Three Auto Producers? Not a Good Idea-Becker, Nov. 16, 2008.Robert E. Hall and Susan E. Woodward (2008), The Financial Crisis and the Recession: What is Happening and What the Government Should Do.
Labor Market
Hashimoto, Masanori and Yoshio Higuchi [2005], Issues Facing the Japanese Labor Market, in Reviving Japan's Economy, MIT Press.
Raymo, James M. and Miho Iwasawa [2005], Marriage Market Mismatches in Japan: An Alternative View of the Relationship between Women's Education and Marriage, American Sociological Review, 70, October, 801-822.
Morishima, Michio (2000), The Japanese Financial System: Its Solidarity and Vulnerability, in Japan at a Deadlock, Macmillan UK.
TAKASHI OSHIO AND WATARU SENO (2007), The Economics of Education in Japan, The Japanese Economy, 35(1), 46-81.
Patricia Boling (2008): Demography, Culture, and Policy: Understanding Japan's Low Fertility (Download pdf. file.)
Women's Economic Status and Fertility: Japan in Cross-National Perspective
S Shirahase - The Political Economy of Japan's Low Fertility, 2007OECD Report (2002): Health Care Reform in Japan
Porter and Teisberg (2004): Redefining Competition in Health CareToshimitsu Shinkawa (2006) The politics of pension reform in Japan: Institutional legacies, credit-claiming and blame avoidance, in Ageing and Pension Reform around the World.