"On the Failure of University-Industry Research Collaboration to Stimulate High Quality Research in Japan"

Using a panel of 30 Japanese chemical and pharmaceutical companies for the period of 1985 to 1998, we estimate the effects of university-industry research collaboration (UIC) on participating firms' research output. We find, as in other studies in the field, that UIC leads to more research output, in terms of the number of patents obtained. In contrast to the results for the U.S., however, we find no evidence that UIC significantly affects quality adjusted patents, that is, citation weighted patent counts. By looking finely at what part of the quality ladder of patents UIC stimulates, we find that UIC increases only those patents with a small number of citations, thus failing to affect the "average" quality of patents. Discussions of possible reasons for this finding are also offered.

"Productivity, Capital Utilization, and Intra-firm Diffusion: A Study of Steel Refining Furnaces"

This paper examines the intra-firm diffusion of new technology in the Japanese steel industry. The introduction of the basic oxygen furnace was the greatest breakthrough in steel refining in the last century. Using unique panel data concerning capital utiliza- tion, the paper estimates total factor productivity by technology type, and associates the estimate with intra-firm diffusion. Estimation results reveal that the productivity difference between the old and new technologies plays an important role. The paper also finds that in operation, the old technology can better respond to changes in market demand, which brings about counter-cyclicality in the measured productivity.

A Theory of Civil Conflict and Democracy in Unequal Societies

This paper examines the endogenous choice between democracy and conflict in a scenario with different social classes in terms of income inequality and with parties representing each of the two social classes. We consider how the change in economic inequality between the poor and rich people affects the sustainability of democracy against conflict and how it impacts the equilibrium levels of tax rate and public expenditure under democracy. We show that the increase in economic inequality destabilizes of democracy since the poor hardly has the incentive to sustain the democracy Further the increase is positively associated with the equilibrium levels of both the tax rate and public expenditure. Therefore, we successfully provide theoretic justification for the fact that sufficiently large economic inequality decreases the possibility of a self-enforcing democracy.

"Matrix Exponential Stochastic Volatility with Cross Leverage"

This paper examines the economic impact of re-invention - the degree to which an innovation is modified by user - on industry growth and productivity. The paper focuses on two re-inventions made by a Japanese steel company; these inventions improved the productive efficiency of Austrian-made refining technology, namely, basic oxygen furnace (BOF). Results obtained from the plant-level production-function estimation indicate that re-inventions account for approximately 30 percent of the total factor productivity of the BOF, substantially promoting the dissemination of the BOF technology. Our simulation analysis indeed reveals that re-inventions contributed to steel output growth by about 14 percent. This paper also documents that innovating companies played the role of a "lead user" in developing and disseminating their re-invented technologies.

"Technology Adoption, Learning by Doing, and Productivity: A Study of Steel Refining Furnaces"

Models of vintage-capital learning by doing predict an initial fall in productivity after the introduction of new technology. This paper examines the impact of new technology on plant-level productivity in the Japanese steel industry in the 1950s and 1960s. The introduction of the basic oxygen furnace was the greatest breakthrough in the steel refining process in the last century. We estimate production function, taking account of the differences in technology between the refining furnaces owned by a plant. Estimation results indicate that a more productive plant was likely to adopt the new technology, and that the adoption would be timed to occur right after the peak of the productivity level achieved with the old technology. We have found that the adoption of the new technology primarily accounted not only for the industry's productivity slowdown in the early 1960s, but also for the industry's remarkable growth in the post-war period. These results are robust to endogeneity in the choice of input and technology.

The Daily Tulean Dispatch, May 27, 1943

https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/tulean/1181/thumbnail.jp

The Daily Tulean Dispatch,May 15, 1943

https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/tulean/1130/thumbnail.jp

The Daily Tulean Dispatch, May 31, 1943

https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/tulean/1138/thumbnail.jp