The Diversity of Capitalism and Heterogeneity of Firms - A Case Study of Japan during the Lost Decade

Most institutional theories of the diversity of capitalism (at least implicitly) assume the existence of a representative firm in each type of capitalism. Based on a case study of Japan during the Lost Decade (1992-2005), this paper aims at showing that this assumption introduces severe drawbacks in the analysis of Japanese capitalism in crisis. After having proposed a survey of theories of Japanese capitalism and of its crisis, we assess the increasing heterogeneity of Japanese firms since the beginning of the 1990s, in terms of performances and “models”, and propose some explanations of this increasing heterogeneity, which concerns firms of similar size and belonging to the same sectors. We then propose an alternative interpretation of this crisis - the lack of coordination of an increasing heterogeneity - and argue that it requires a new characterization of Japanese capitalism. In the final part, we extend our analysis beyond the Japanese case in arguing that our framework, which is based on an alternative theory of the firm, on the study of the evolution of the heterogeneity of organizations, and on the analysis of aggregation and coordination of the micro behaviors through institutions, provides a more dynamic understanding of institutional change.Japanese capitalism; heterogeneity of firms; coordination; institutional change; organizational change

Wage share variations in France and Germany since 1970: what does really matter?

This paper refers to a few recent studies, which have focused on methodological issues related to the estimation of the wage share variations, to compare the evolutions in France and former West Germany since 1970. It is shown that the usual method overestimates the long run drop of wage share in both countries but that the magnitude and thus the contribution of different biases are quite different in France and Germany. However no bias can explain the sharp drop of wage share in Germany since 2001, which has to be analysed within the framework of the euro area.Income distribution, Wage share, International comparison

Price Dynamics in Japan (1981-2001): A Structural Analysis of Mechanisms in the Goods and Labor Markets

This paper aims to provide an alternative framework to previous studies of deflation in Japan. We focus on the real dimension of the price dynamics and propose an imperfect competition model, which describes a rent economy, where the formation of prices can be separated into the markup (level of the rent in the goods market) and the unit labor cost (distribution of the rent in the labor market). We use a panel industry dataset to analyze the impact of institutional and structural factors on the heterogeneous price dynamics of 10 manufacturing sectors. Although the evolution of unit labor costs seems to be the driving force of price dynamics in the manufacturing industry, our structural analysis leads to consider the importance of the increasingly competitive environment, as captured by rising import penetration. Along with the decline of bargaining power of the workforce, this is at the origin of the deflationary pressures that characterized the Japanese economy during the Lost Decade.Deflation, Japanese Economy, Wage Bargaining, Markup, Deregulation, Panel Threshold Regression

Sectoral Price Dynamics in Japan: A Threshold Approach

This paper focuses on the real – as opposed to the monetary – side of the economy to explain price dynamics in Japan between 1981 and 2001. We use a panel industry dataset to examine the impact of institutional and structural factors on the heterogeneous price dynamics in 10 manufacturing sectors. Although the evolution of unit labor costs may seem to be the driving force of these price dynamics, our analysis underlines the importance of the increasingly competitive environment, as captured by rising import penetration. Along with the decline of bargaining power of the workforce, this is a key factor underlying the deflationary pressures that characterized Japanese manufacturing industries in the 1990s.Price Dynamics, Panel Threshold Regression, Japanese Economy.

Wage and Productivity Differentials in Japan: The Role of Labor Market Mechanisms

Two stylized facts characterized Japan during the so-called Lost Decade (1992-2005): rising wage inequalities and increasing productivity differentials at the firm level. Surprisingly, these features have never been connected in the literature. This paper attempts to fill this gap by proposing an explanation focusing on labor market mechanisms. We first construct an efficiency wage model with two types of firms distinguished by their job security schemes and associated incentive mechanisms. We show that a comparable negative productivity shock at the aggregate level leads to different firm reactions; namely, the model predicts increasing effort from workers in firms employing an efficiency wage mechanism. This leads to increasing productivity and wage differentials and a rise of the share of these firms in the total population of firms. We test this model using Japanese micro data. For the first time, we match the Basic Survey on Wage Structure and the Employment Trend Survey for 2005. The matched worker-firm dataset we obtain allows us to confirm the existence of an efficiency wage mechanism on average. We also divide our sample of firms into two groups using the unknown regime switching regression a la Dickens and Lang (1985), and find that the primary sector, unlike the secondary, is characterized by efficiency wages. We confirm this result with various robustness checks. Finally, we simulate the evolution of the share of the primary sector in the economy and find that it substantially increased between 1981 and 2005 in line with the predictions of our model.heterogeneity of firms, efficiency wages, job security, effort, productivity differentials, wage inequalities

Price Dynamics in Japan (1981-2001): A StructuralAnalysis of Mechanisms in the Goods and LaborMarkets

This paper aims to provide an alternative framework to previous studies of deflation in Japan. We focus on the real dimension of the price dynamics and propose an imperfect competition model, which describes a rent economy, where the formation of prices can be separated into the markup (level of the rent in the goods market) and the unit labor cost (distribution of the rent in the labor market). We use a panel industry dataset to analyze the impact of institutional and structural factors on the heterogeneous price dynamics of 10 manufacturing sectors. Although the evolution of unit labor costs seems to be the driving force of price dynamics in the manufacturing industry, our structural analysis leads to consider the importance of the increasingly competitive environment, as captured by rising import penetration. Along with the decline of bargaining power of the workforce, this is at the origin of the deflationary pressures that characterized the Japanese economy during the Lost Decade.Deflation, Japanese Economy, Wage Bargaining, Markup, Deregulation, Panel Threshold Regression

Investigating Collaborative R&D Using Patent Data: The Case Study of Robot Technology in Japan

The growing trend of collaborative R&D has been well documented recently, both at a global level and through national and industry case studies. However, there is not yet any consensus regarding the following decisive questions: what are the exact level and evolution of R&D collaboration? What are the benefits of collaboration? What are the motives and determinants of firms engaging in R&D collaboration? In our opinion, these questions have not yet been answered due to the limitations of the data used in most empirical studies (large questionnaire surveys or very specific case studies). The main novelty of this paper is the use of patent data with a focus on information concerning inventors. These data are less biased than questionnaire surveys in terms of the size of the institutions; they are objective and are particularly appropriate for analyzing the benefits of collaboration. As the identification of the institutions to which individual inventors are affiliated is a particularly time consuming task, we focus on robot technology in Japan since the beginning of the 1990s. Our results are as follows. First, although the level of R&D collaboration in RT in Japan increased between 1991 and 2004, especially in the case of collaboration between firms and universities, it still remains low and is dominated by inter-firm collaborations. Second, we cannot definitively reject the conclusion that only the scale of the research has an impact on the quality of patents, when the unit of analysis is the patent; however, we show that there are significant spillover effects of collaboration, which imply an indirect effect on quality. Third, the determinants and motives which encourage firms to decide to engage in collaborative research differ depending on the partner they are collaborating with. In the case of collaboration with other firms, IO theories hold, as the existence of spillovers acts as an incentive. Regarding the collaboration with universities and public research institutes, the validity of capability theory, which emphasizes the quest for complementary knowledge and capability, is confirmed by our empirical investigation.collaborative R&D, robot technology, patent data

Reform der Alterssicherung in Europa : gibt es einen französischen Weg ? (La réforme des retraites en Europe : y a-t-il une voie française ?)

URL des Documents de travail :http://ces.univ-paris1.fr/cesdp/CESFramDP2007.htmDocuments de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 2007.34 - ISSN : 1955-611XIm Laufe der letzten fünfzehn Jahre sind in Frankreich zwei wichtige Reformen der Basisrentensysteme (1993 und 2003) verabschiedet sowie zahlreiche MaBnahmmen zur Reform der gesetzlichen Zusatzversorgung getroffen worden. Im Gegensatz zu anderen Ländern ist die Rolle des Umlageverfahrens als wichtigstes Finanzierungsverfahren für die Zukunft anscheinend bestätigt worden. Die frühe Mindestaltersgrenze (60. Lebensjahr) ist unverändert geblieben. Der Kern der zugrunde liegenden Strategie der 2003er Rentenreform ist das erhoffte Sinken der Arbeitslosigkeit, das eine Steigerung der Beschäftigungsquote der Älteren und damit eine Verlängerung der Versicherungsdauer und eine Flexibilisierung der Rentenzugangsmöglichkeiten erlauben soll. Gleichzeitig wäre unter diesen Umständen eine begrenzte Erhöhung der Rentenbeiträge ohne Anstieg der Gesamtsozialabgaben möglich. Gibt es tatsächlich einen französischen Weg zur Rentenreform ? Nach einem Überblick des gesetzlichen Alterssicherungssystems in Frankreich, der es uns erlaubt den Inhalt der Rentenreform von 1993 vorzustellen, analysieren wir, in einem zweiten Teil, die erklärenden Faktoren der neuen Reform, die im Jahre 2003 verabschiedet wurde. Der dritte Teil unseres Beitrags wird einer Bewertung der Reformstrategie und der erwarteten Wirkungen dieser Reform gewidmet. Dabei wird gezeigt, dass die Antwort auf unsere Frage stark differenziert sein soll, insbesondere weil nach heutigem Zustand in Frankreich einer der spürbarsten Rückgänge des Rentenniveaus in der EU zu erwarten ist.In France over the last fifteen years two important reforms in the basic pension systems (1993 and 2003) were made and numerous measures concerning the legal supplementary benefits systems were put into effect. Contrary to other countries, the role of the pay-as-you-go system as the main pension financing system has apparently continued. The early age at which a worker can claim a retirement benefit has remained unchanged. The core of the 2003 pension reforms strategy is the hopped reduction of unemployment in the next years, which will allow an increase of the employments' rate of older worker and thus an extension of the insurance period to get a full rate pension. In this context a limited increase of the pension contributions without a rise of the total social security contributions would be possible. Is there actually a French way to the pension reform ? After an overview of the legal pension system in France, which allow us to present the content of the most important pension reform of 1993, we analyse and discuss, in a second part, the explaining factors of the new reform, which was adopted in the year 2003. The third part of our contribution is dedicated to an evaluation of the reform strategy and the expected effects of this reform. We will show that the answer to our question must be strongly qualified, notably because of the very important reduction of gross replacements rates in the long term, which could be one of the sharpest in the EU

The Effect of Participation in Government Consortia on the R&D Productivity of Firms: A Case Study of Robot Technology in Japan

This paper examines the effect of participation in government-sponsored R&D consortia on the R&D productivity of firms in the case of robot technology in Japan. We attempt to provide a new empirical analysis and discussions on the issue of government project evaluation by using indicators of the quality of patents, by investigating the impact of the evolution of government programs, and comparing government-sponsored R&D consortia with collaborative R&D among firms. Using indicators of the quality of patents which enables us to provide an estimation of quality-adjusted research productivity, we find that participation in government programs has a positive impact on the research productivity of participating firms, but the impact of participation became much higher after the design of government programs in this field changed in the late 1990s. Also, we find that participation in government-sponsored consortia has a greater impact on research productivity than participation in collaborative R&D among firms. This may support government involvement in R&D as a coordinator of R&D collaboration.industrial policy, robot thchnology, Japanese innovation system, collaborative R&D