Introduction to Japanese
Economy
Fall 2019
Syllabus
2020/2/3
Ryoichi Imai
International Student
Center, Kyushu University
My JTW Course Page
JTW Homepage
Contents
1.
Course
Outline
2.
Organization,
Attendance, and Other Requirements
3.
Pre-requisites
4.
Assessment
Details
5.
Schedule
and Readings
Course Outline
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 presentation 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.
Pre-requisite
None. Any knowledge on
macroeconomics or microeconomics will be useful.
Assessment Details
You can get two credits by
satisfying the following three requirements.
1.
Class Attendance and Discussion
20%
According to
the government guideline, no students are allowed to take the course final
examination, if they do not show up in more than 1/3 of the class meetings. The
government has set up a more rigorous grading standard on credits.
2.
Presentation 40%
3.
Final Examination 40%
If you need to acquire three
credits in accordance with the credit transfer policy of your home university,
you can get three credits by making a second presentation in different topics
in addition to the requirements as above.
Schedule and Readings (subject to Change)
PART I: Lecture
1.
(10/02) E01. 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-
Krugman, Paul
(1994), The Myth
of Asia's Miracle, Foreign Affairs.
Productivity
Slowdown and Structural Reforms
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. Downloadable
in the campus.
Caballero, Hoshi, and Kashyap (2008), Zombie Lending and Depressed
Restructuring in Japan, American Economic Review, 98(5), 1943–1977.
Japanese
Economy changed not in 1990 but in 1997
Iwamoto (2011): The Quantity
Theory under Liquidity Trap (J)
Higuchi (2015) Neets,
Freeters, and Job Separation for Elderly Care in Middle Age (J)
Reuters (2015) Japan PM calls for steps to achieve a $5 trillion economy (E)
(J)
The Real-Effective Foreign
Exchange Rates
Purchasing Power Parity (J)
Secular Stagnation
FRB (2013) The Great
Moderation 1980-2007
Eggertsson and
Mehrotra (2014) A
Model of Secular Stagnation, VOXEU
Lawrence Summers: Secular Stagnation
Page
Robert Gordon (2016) The Rise and Fall of
American Growth, Princeton University Press
Robert Gordon (2017a)
Secular Stagnation: A Supply-Side View
Robert Gordon (2017b)
AI and Employment: Misplaced Fears
Robert Gordon (2018) Monetary Tools, Financial Reforms, and the Next
Financial Crisis
Robert
Gordon Slides
MMT debate, Inside
Money, and the Deficit Gamble
Does debts rollover improve economic
welfare?
Blanchard (2019) Public Debts and Low Interest Rates
Robert
Barro (1974) Are
Government Bonds Net Wealth?
Marcus
Hagedorn (2018) Prices
and Inflation when Government Bonds are Net Wealth
Simon
Wren-Lewis (2019) Should
we worry about temporarily raising government debt? Blanchard’s AEA Address
Charles
Wyplosz (2019) Olivier in Wonderland
Auerbach and Hassett (2015) Capital taxation
in the 21st century
Lucrezia
Reichlin, Adair Turner, Michael Woodford 23 September 2019 Helicopter
money as a policy option
BOJ
Governor Shirakawa (2012) Central
Banking: Before, During, and After the Crisis
Kenjo
Yoshikazu (2019) Japan’s
economy is not so bad (J)
Kobayashi
Keiichiro (2019) Confidence
in the JGBs (J)
Kobayashi
Keiichiro (2019) Why has Deflation
Continued under Extraordinary Monetary Expansion? 日本語
Pak
Katsutoshi (2019) A
Review of “The Modern Money Theory” by Randall Ray (J)
Matsuo Tadasu
(2019) A
Synthesis of Macroeconomics to Support the Anti-Austerity (J)
Shioji
Tetsuro (2018) The FTPL
and the Non-Conventional Fiscal-Monetary Policies (J)
Kawagoe
Masaaki and Hirose Tetsuki (2003) On the
Fiscal Theory of Price Level (J)
Miyao Ryuzo
(2019) Does
the BOJ do the MMT policy? (J)
Takebe
Masayoshi (2014) Considering
Japanese Government Debts in the Context of the Endogenous Money Supply
Theories (J)
Nakano
Takeshi (2019) Understanding
the Modern Monetary Theory (video in J)
Noguchi
Asahi (2019) A
Critical Review of the Modern Money Theory (J)
National
Accounting of Japan (J)
Annual Report on
Economy and Fiscal Policies (J)
我が国財政の変遷と長期展望（Ministry of Finance）
Review
of the Government Finance in the Postwar Era of Japan (J)
Short
version:
2.
(10/09) Introduction 2
3.
(10/16) Introduction 3
4.
(10/23) Introduction 4
5.
(10/30) E02. Corporate
Governance
Iwai, Katsuhito (2002), The Nature of the Business Corporation: Its Legal
Structure and Economic Functions, Japanese Economic Review 53(3),
243-273.
Carloｓ Ghosn – Japan
Times
The Nissan Case
Modelling the Japanese
Firms – Masahiko Aoki
Toward
a Comparative Institutional Analysis
A
Model of the Firm as a Stockholder-Employee Cooperative Game (Download it
in Kyudai)
The
Share Economy - Martin Weitzman
6.
(11/06) The
Japanese Employment System (Rebick: Ch. 2)
Gordon,
Robert J. (2006), Issues
in the Comparison of Welfare Between Europe and the United States.
7.
(11/13) More on
Labor Market Issues
8.
(11/20) More on Labor Market Issues
Kocherlakota (2010) Modern
Macroeconomic Models as Tools for Economic Policy
OECD indicators on
employment protection
black companies – The Japan Times
black
company (Wikipedia)
9.
（11/27） The
Lost Generation
junior labor
market tightness (Recruit Works)
Employment
Categories (JILPT)
Labor
shift between regular and non-regular employment (MHWL)
Eiji Oguma(2019) 日本社会のしくみ (How does the Japanese Society Work?)
10. (12/04) Inequality Debates
Inequality in Japan: Overview
Reconsidering
Inequality
Inequality in
Japan Updated
Inequality
2015 (in Japanese)
Globalization
and Inequality (in Japanese)
Branko Milanovic
The World Top
Income Database
Autor, Katz,
and Kearney (2007), The
Polarization of the U.S. Labor Market
Thomas
Piketty
Thomas
Piketty’s lecture at LSE 2014 on wealth
inequality
Gabriel Zucman
Krusell and Smith (2014) Is Piketty’s “Second Law of
Capitalism” Fundamental?
Matthew Rognlie (2014) A Note on
Piketty and Diminishing Returns to Capital
Bonnet, Bono, Chapelle, and Wasmer (2014), Capital
is not back: A comment on Thomas Piketty’s ‘Capital in the 21st Century’
--- (2014), Does
housing capital contribute to inequality? A comment on Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century
11. (12/11) Inequality
Debates continued
12. (12/18) Long-run Growth
Clark and Ishii (2012) Social
Mobility in Japan, 1868-2012: The
Surprising Persistence of the Samurai, University of California, Davis
Japan and the
Great Divergence, 725 to 1874
voxeu
article
Agricultural
Land Survey 1598-1872 (in Japanese)
Kyoji Fukao (2018) Historical
Insights for the Long-run Stagnation of Japanese Economy (J)
Extra (12/25)
-----Winter
Break-----
PART II:
Students' Presentations
Kenichi Ohno (2006) The Economic Development of
Japan
13. (1/08):
Chapter 1: Yang
Chapter 2: Julie
Chapter 3: Jade
14. (1/15)
Chapter 4: Emma
Chapter 5: Marie
Chapter 6: Yi-Chen
15. (1/22)
Chapter 7: Phoenix
Chapter 8: Gregoire
Chapter 9: Harrison,
16. (1/29) Long-run Growth
Clark and Ishii (2012) Social
Mobility in Japan, 1868-2012: The
Surprising Persistence of the Samurai, University of California, Davis
Japan and the
Great Divergence, 725 to 1874
voxeu
article
Agricultural
Land Survey 1598-1872 (in Japanese)
Kyoji Fukao (2018) Historical
Insights for the Long-run Stagnation of Japanese Economy (J)
17. Final Take-home Examination (New 2020)
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.
Social
Security
Angry
blog post sparks movement for improved day care
Japan’s top buzzword candidates for 2016
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.
Intellectual Property
Rights
*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 and Social
Security
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.)
OECD Report (2002): Health
Care Reform in Japan
Porter and Teisberg (2004): Redefining
Competition in Health Care
Toshimitsu
Shinkawa (2006) The
politics of pension reform in Japan: Institutional legacies, credit-claiming
and blame avoidance, in Ageing and Pension Reform around the World.