Has the Government Lowered the Hours Worked? Evidence from Japan

Why does the hours worked show a decreasing pattern in the postwar Japanese economy? This paper answers this question in the background of the changing pattern of government spending and tax-imposing behaviors. We construct and simulate a standard optimal growth model with the following key features: various taxes and subsidies. Our main findings are as follows. First, we quantitatively find that the increasing pattern of taxes on labor income played a crucial role in influencing the declining pattern of hours worked in Japan. Second, consumption tax and subsidy have a limited role in explaining the labor supply because they cancel each other out. Third, pension benefit may influence the retirement of the people in their sixties but has a minor effect on the hours worked. Fourth, the legal reduction in the workweek length in 1990 can explain the low level of the hours worked since 1990. Fifth, subsistence consumption can account for the slope of hours worked but cannot explain the long-run level.marginal tax rate, subsidy, hours worked, pension benefit

Productivity shocks and housing market inflations in new Keynesian models

Econometric evidence suggests the existence of two dynamics in the postwar U.S. housing market: (i) housing rental and purchase prices co-move positively in response to productivity shocks, and (ii) the purchase price exhibits much larger volatile movements than the rental price in response to the shocks. A standard New Keynesian model with nominal rigidity in the production sector is inconsistent with these facts. We incorporate a rental market into an otherwise standard New Keynesian model with durables and show that nominal rigidity in the rental market contributes to our empirical findings.Productivity shock; price-rent ratio; housing prices

Optimal monetary policy with durable services: user cost versus purchase price

This paper investigates the inflation rate that should be set as the target for the central bank. To this end, we develop a two-sector economy model in the existence of long-lived durables. In contrast to recent studies that have been conducted on how monetary policy can affect the role of durable goods, which examine only the production sector, we introduce a service market. Accordingly, we can endogenously derive the traditional user cost equation and the price-rent ratio. Our main findings are as follows: First, even in cases where both service and production sectors are equally sticky, the user cost is more important than the purchase price, from the perspective of welfare loss. Second, in contrast to the situation in the economy that includes only nondurables, a temporary shock persistently influences output fluctuations. However, this does not mean that welfare loss increases as the degree of durability increases. Third, welfare is found to be a strictly increasing function of durability.Durables; User cost; Price-rent ratio; Optimal monetary policy

Fiscal Policy under the Debt Feedback Rule: The Case of Japan

The Japanese government has amassed a huge amount of gross public debts over the past several decades. However, previous empirical works dealing with vector auto-regression (VAR) have not considered the effect of debt on fiscal policy and the macro economy. In this paper, we incorporate debt dynamics in a VAR model in the spirit of Favero and Giavazzi (2007, 2011). The inclusion of the debt feedback rule in VAR can help overcome the misspecification problem and provide direction toward a more relevant debt path and fiscal stance. The main findings of our study are as follows. First, in the pre-bubble period, the fiscal authority in Japan increased the primary surplus when the public debt level was high. However, this Ricardian behavior was not seen in the post-bubble period. Second, the impulse response functions to the expansionary government spending shock reveal that the stance of fiscal policy was more active in the pre-bubble. Third, while the forecast of debt dynamics in the pre-bubble period was stable, it became explosive in the post-bubble period.fiscal policy, Japan's public debt, VAR

PE Teachers\u27 Perceptions of Technology-Related Learning Experiences: A Qualitative Investigation

Background/Purpose: Educational organizations, such as National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) and International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), established technology-related standards indicating the knowledge and skills necessary for teachers to integrate technology. Such standards have challenged teacher education programs to restructure existing PETE program to prepare teachers to have knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for successful technology integration (Jones, Bulger, & Wyant, 2012). Yet, physical education (PE) teachers frequently reported that they still do not feel sufficiently prepared to incorporate technology into their classroom (Juniu, Shonfeld, & Ganot, 2013). Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine in-service PE teachers\u27 past learning experiences to integrate technology from three mediated learning situations and their perceptions of them. Methods/Analysis: Twelve PE teachers, who were enrolled in the Master\u27s PETE program at a rural mid-Atlantic university were invited to participate in this current study based on the results of the Stage of Adoption of Technology (SAT) survey (Christensen, 1997). All participants completed an individual audio-recorded, structured interview regarding their past technology-related learning experiences in the three mediated learning situations. Inductive content analysis was used to examine the emergent themes (Elo & Kyngas, 2008). Trustworthiness of the data was established through member check, investigator triangulation, and peer debriefing. Results: With regard to technology-related learning experiences, the inductive content analysis revealed six learning sources: a) sport and exercise science coursework, b) discipline-specific pedagogy coursework, c) general teacher education coursework, d) school-wide technology workshops, e) discipline-specific technology workshops, f) discipline-specific technology coursework. Two overarching themes emerged from the interview data regarding participants\u27 perceptions of those learning experiences: a) technology-centric/focused experience, and b) hands-on technology experience and observations. Conclusion: Since the level of teachers\u27 knowledge and technology use are different, there should be various learning activities to address the different needs of teachers. The following technology integration training strategies would be appropriate: a) faculty education to model meaningful technology integration examples, b) self-exploration for deep understanding of technology, c) providing situation-based learning for extending learned knowledge, d) university collaboration with local K-12, and e) creating a learning community