Why Is There No Harvard Among Japanese Private Universities?

The social and academic reputation of private universities in Japan is generally far behind the national universities. We argue that heavy subsidy and the low tuition of national universities determined by the central government are both responsible for making the production of high academic quality difficult for private universities in equilibrium. Using several simulations based on a theoretical model of assignment of heterogeneous students and universities with respect to tuition and educational quality, we show that the distribution of tuitions and academic quality of private universities are affected by the low tuition and heavy subsidy policy of national university. Using the cross-section data of all universities in Japan, we present empirical evidence on the determinants of tuition of private universities that support our theoretical predictionEmpirical analysis of Japanese economy, Demand for education quality, Assignment model

Estimating Consumer Valuation of Earthquake Risk: Evidence from Japanese Housing Markets

The relationships between seismic risk and rental and owner- occupied housing prices in the whole of Japan are examined. The empirical results from hedonic regressions with earthquake risk indices suggest that: (1) earthquake occurrence probability has a significantly negative effect on monthly housing rent, (2) the effect of earthquake probability seems to depend on the characteristics of the individual housing unit (e.g. age of dwelling) for owner-occupied housing, (3) the estimated risk premium is much larger for older buildings, and (4) the share of quake-resistant dwellings in the neighborhood area is significantly and positively related to the housing price of the individual unit. These results suggest that anti-seismic policies that target specific groups of dwellings, such as rental houses and older buildings, help to mitigate welfare loss due to earthquakes.Earthquake; Hedonic price model; Risk premium

The asymmetric housing wealth effect on childbirth

The literature has shown that an increase in housing wealth, driven by unexpected shocks to house prices, exerts a positive effect on the birthrates of homeowners. According to canonical models, a decrease in housing wealth has a symmetric negative impact on the fertility behavior of households. That is, housing gains and losses of the same size should have identical quantitative effects on fertility. In comparison, prospect theory suggests that people care more about housing losses than equivalent gains, leading to an asymmetric effect of housing wealth on the fertility decision. In our model, we weight the utility from childbirth by the utility from the price of housing, where the reference level is the house price in previous years. The theoretical model suggests that the probability of childbirth is kinked at a reference level of housing wealth and the wealth effects are discontinuously larger below this kink than above it. We test this theoretical prediction using longitudinal data on Japanese households. Consistent with this theoretical prediction, our empirical results show that the fertility responses of homeowners, as measured by the birth hazard rate, are substantially larger when housing wealth is below its reference level than when it is above its reference level

The asymmetric housing wealth effect on childbirth

The literature has shown that an increase in housing wealth, driven by unexpected shocks to house prices, exerts a positive effect on the birthrates of homeowners. According to canonical models, a decrease in housing wealth has a symmetric negative impact on the fertility behavior of households. That is, housing gains and losses of the same size should have identical quantitative effects on fertility. In comparison, prospect theory suggests that people care more about housing losses than equivalent gains, leading to an asymmetric effect of housing wealth on the fertility decision. In our model, we weight the utility from childbirth by the utility from the price of housing, where the reference level is the house price in previous years. The theoretical model suggests that the probability of childbirth is kinked at a reference level of housing wealth and the wealth effects are discontinuously larger below this kink than above it. We test this theoretical prediction using longitudinal data on Japanese households. Consistent with this theoretical prediction, our empirical results show that the fertility responses of homeowners, as measured by the birth hazard rate, are substantially larger when housing wealth is below its reference level than when it is above its reference level

Intergenerational Correlation of Household Wealth : Evidence from the JHPS Second-Generation Supplement

IPSE DP 2021F00

Unemployment Risk and the Timing of Homeownership in Japan

The effect of unemployment risk on the timing of homeownership is examined through the use of a retrospective panel of Japanese households. We obtain the following results by applying the split population duration (SPD) model: (1) unemployment risk, as proxied by the probability of unemployment, has a significantly negative effect on homeownership and delays its timing, (2) the effect of unemployment risk is overestimated in previous studies, which assume that all households will eventually become homeowners, and (3) household characteristics as well as the conditions of housing and labour markets at the early stages of a household's life cycle play an important role in the determination of its housing purchase. Finally, our simulation results indicate that an initial one-year unemployment spell will have a fairly large impact of 1.6-year delay in the timing of a subsequent home purchase.

Does Mandating Wider Subject Variety Create Incentives to Learn? Evidence from Public High School Admission Policies in Japan

This paper provides evidence on whether mandating wider subject variety on high school entrance exams affects long-term educational achievement using Japanese historical experiences. In Japan, where high school education is non-compulsory, prefectural boards of education have retained the freedom to set admission criteria for public high schools within their prefecture, including the number of subjects tested on entrance exams. Using prefectural-level panel data over 33 years, we estimate the effect of the number of subjects tested at the time of high school entrance on the probability of college attendance three years later. We find that the variety of subjects tested has a positive effect on the later college enrollment. Our findings are broadly consistent with the prediction of the incentive theory of testing (Lazear, 2006) and the heterogeneity of human capital.

Unemployment risk and the timing of homeownership in Japan

We examine the effect of unemployment risk on the timing of homeownership applying a survival analysis approach. Empirical results from the Split Population Duration (SPD) model suggest that: (1) unemployment risk has a significantly negative effect on homeownership and delays its timing even after controlling for income variability measures, (2) the null hypothesis that every household will eventually become a homeowner is rejected, which supports the SPD model against the standard duration model, and (3) the standard duration model underestimates the effects of both unemployment risk and income variability. Finally, our simulation results indicate that changes in unemployment risk have a fairly large impact on the probability of home purchase--a 10 percentile increase in unemployment probability from its median level would reduce the probability by 2.0 percentage point, whereas comparable changes in income variability measures would reduce the probability mere 0.2-0.3 percentage points.Timing of homeownership Unemployment risk SPD model