A Role of public finance in the Ghatak and Jiang model a comment

This paper proposes that a public finance system can Pareto-improve a version of the economy in Ghatak and Jiang (2002). Our discussion relates to the controversial issue of wealth inequality in Japan. Its implications are important for consideration during administrative reform by the Koizumi Cabinet.

Japan's Intangible Capital and Valuation of Corporations in a Neoclassical Framework

This paper estimates the economic value in the 1980s and 1990s of corporate as sets in Japan,including both tangible and intangible as sets, based on the neo-classical framework of McGrattan and Prescott(2005). Our estimates use anew micro-data set that comprises the accounting statements of all listed, non-financial companies in Japan. We find that in 1981-86, a period that immediately preceded Japan's so-called "bubble economy", our assessed value of corporate productiveas-sets, net of the value of corporate debt,is approximately equal to the actual stock market value of Japanese corporate equity. The fnding differs from previous results based on studies of aggregated at a sets or based on studies of micro data sets that neglected intangible capital. We also show that the Japanese ratio of the amount of intangible capital stock to the amount of tangible capital stock is comparable to the analogous ratios for the U.S. and U.K.

Measurement of Social Preference from Utility-Based Choice Experiments

Ever since the classical works of Smith and Veblen, economists have recognized that individuals care about their relative positions and status in addition to their own consumption. This paper addresses a new framework of choice experiments in order to specify the shape of utility function with preference externalities. Theoretical studies on social preference, which are conducted without estimating or calibrating important parameters of social preference and put forward various propositions in accordance with the parameters assumed, can refer to the parameters estimated in this paper. Our findings complement those of happiness studies which support the view of social preference. We show that preference externality is, on average, characterized by jealousy among Japanese respondents, and also that heterogeneity in social preference parameters is driven by differences in income levels, age, and gender.

Public versus Private Education in an Endogenous Growth Model with Social Status

This paper investigates which of publicly financed education or privately financed education is favorable for growth in an economy where development of new technology by specialists is the engine of growth and social rewards are bestowed upon growth enhancing activities. We show that when one quests for social status, the privately financed education could improve the allocation of human resource and the growth rate could become higher in the private finance regime than in the public finance regime.Allocation of Human Resource

Education, Innovation, and Long-Run Growth

This study augments a second-generation Schumpeterian growth model to employ human capital explicitly. We clarify the general-equilibrium interactions of subsidy policies to R&D and human capital accumulation in a unified framework. Despite a standard intuition that subsidizing these growth-enhancing activities is always mutually growth promoting, we find asymmetric effects for subsidies on R&D and those on education. Our theoretical result of asymmetric policy effects provides an important empirical caveat that empirical researchers may find false negative relationships between education subsidies and the output growth rate, if they merely rely on the standard human capital model.ISER discussion paperFebruary 2009, Revised March 2009, Secondly Revised November 2011(Originally entitled "Complementary Relationships between Education and Innovation"

Difference or ratio: Implication of status preference on stagnation

We consider a dynamic macroeconomic model with households that regard relative affluence as social status. The measure of relative affluence can be the ratio to, or the difference from, the social average. The two specifications lead to quite different results: with the ratio specification full employment is necessarily realized, whereas with the difference specification persistent shortages of aggregate demand and employment can arise. Furthermore, using the data of an experiment of affluence comparison we empirically find that the difference specification is far more persuasive than the ratio specification. Thus, the present model provides an analytical framework for persistent stagnation

Can we steer income comparison attitudes by information provision? Evidence from randomized survey experiments in the US and the UK

Economists have long been concerned that negative attitudes about relative income reduce social welfare. This paper investigates whether such attitudes can be mitigated by a simple information treatment. Toward this end, we conducted an original randomized online survey experiment in the US and the UK. As a baseline result, we find that UK respondents compare their incomes with others' at a much higher rate than US subjects do. Additionally, we find that our information treatment - suggesting that comparing income with others may diminish their welfare even when income levels are actually increasing - made respondents compare incomes more, rather than less. Interestingly, we find such effects only among UK respondents. The mechanism for this among UK respondents seems to be driven by those who are initially less comparison-conscious becoming more comparison-conscious, indicating that our information treatment gives moral "license" to make comparisons by informing that others actually do

Appraising the unhappiness due to the Great East Japan Earthquake: Evidence from weekly panel data on subjective well-being

After severe disasters, persons living not only in the directly affected areas, but also in distant areas could be seriously affected thorough images of the disaster on television and in newspapers. Hence, it can be difficult to define qualified beneficiaries for policy compensation in terms of psychological suffering. Building on the case of Great East Japan Earthquake, we appraise psychological suffering from disaster-related news through the experienced utility approach. We take advantage of the serendipitous timing of our original nationwide weekly panel survey that became a timely investigation of subjective well-being in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. Although a pale was cast over the whole society, we found that there was a robust and large geographical heterogeneity between the disaster area and non-disaster areas in mental costs. This finding may capture the focusing effect, suggesting that resources for compensating mental suffering should be concentrated on persons living in the disaster area

Valuing Japanese corporations: A new perspective on Japan's stock market "bubble" of the 1980s

Employing a new accounting data set we apply the framework of McGrattan and Prescott (2005) to the Japanese economy in order to assess if Japanese stocks were priced correctly in the period after 1980. We find that the stock market tended to undervalue the fundamental value of installed capital. We also provide a new interpretation of Japanese stock market phenomena during the 'bubble period' and suggest that from a theoretical perspective, stock prices during the 'bubble period' were correctly valued. Changes in the reproducible cost of intangible capital play an important role in our new interpretation

Difference or Ratio : Implication of Status Preference on Stagnation

October 2012, Revised March 2013 Secondly Revised January 201