Structural Reform of Japanese Economy
Spring 2008
Syllabus
2008/05/28
Ryoichi Imai
International Student Center, Kyushu University
imryoichi@isc.kyushu-u.ac.jp
http://homepage3.nifty.com/ronten/JTWhome.htm
Contents
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 provided by the instructor.
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 to be handed out in advance of each class. The presenter must make a set of PowerPoint Slides. There is one midterm examination, but no written homework.
none. Any knowledge on macroeconomics or microeconomics will be useful.
Class Attendance and Discussion 10%
Presentation 50%
Midterm 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 present your own work with PowerPoint at the last class, and submit an essay with more than 1000 words. You must discuss your original work with the course instructor sufficiently before the presentation, and get his approval.
Schedule and Readings (subject to Change)
PART I: Lecture
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.
Introduction 2
Introduction 3
Porter, Michael E. and Mariko Sakakibara (2004) Competition in Japan, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 18(1), 27-50.
Iwai, Katsuhito (2002), The Nature of the Business Corporation: Its Legal Structure and Economic Functions, Japanese Economic Review 53(3), 243-273.
The Japanese Employment System (Rebick: Ch. 2)
The Polarization of the U.S. Labor Market (Autor, Katz, and Kearney)
Extra/Make-Up.
Extra/Make-Up.
PART II: Students' Presentations (* denotes readings for students' presentation)
(6/11) Hiroshi Yoshikawa (2001), Exchange Rates, in Japan's Lost Decade,
International House of Japan.
Phil, Bregt, Ynna
(6/18) Hiroshi Yoshikawa (2001), Japan's Manufacturing and Nonmanufacturing
Industries, in Japan's Lost Decade, International House of Japan.
Woranuch, Andrew, Ozono
(6/25) TAKASHI OSHIO AND WATARU
SENO (2007), The Economics of Education in Japan,
The Japanese Economy, 35(1), 46-81.
Arisa, Bregt, Phil
(7/2) Iwamoto, Yasushi (2002), The Fiscal Investment and Loan Program in
Transition, Journal of the Japan and International Economics 16,
583-604.
Woranuch, Andrew, Ozono
(7/9) Allen, F. and M. Zhao (2007)
The Corporate Governance Model of Japan:
Shareholders are not Rulers.
Arisa, Ynna
(7/15) Final Examination
Extra Readings
General
Hiroshi Yoshikawa (2001), The Aging of Society and Fiscal Policy, in Japan's Lost Decade, International House of Japan.
Global Capital Flow and Currency Crises
Allen and Gale (2007), Understanding Financial Crises, Ch.1
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.
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.
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
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.
Labor Market
Hashimoto, Masanori and Yoshio Higuchi [2005], Issues Facing the Japanese Labor Market, in Reviving Japan's Economy, MIT Press.
*Toshiaki Tachibanaki (2006): Inequality and Poverty in Japan, Japanese Economic Review, 57(1), 1-27
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.