Judging Japan's FDI: The verdict from a dartboard model

We evaluate Japan's inward and outward FDI performance using theoretical benchmarks based on the premise that management teams headquartered around the world bid for the production facilities located in each country. Our model incorporates the assumption that bids are inversely proportionate to distance. It accurately predicts the multilateral shares of FDI stocks for most important countries. The theory predicts lower shares of FDI for Japan than its share of the world economy. Japan's actual share of outward FDI exceeds its inward share -as the model predicts- but both currently lie below the benchmark predictions.Foreign direct investment, gravity, mergers and acquisitions, openness

Agglomeration Benefits and Location Choice: Evidence from Japanese Manufacturing Investment in the United States

Recent theories of economic geography suggest that firms in the same industry may be drawn to the same locations because proximity generates positive externalities or 'agglomeration effects.' Under this view, chance events and government inducements can have a lasting influence on the geographical pattern of manufacturing. However, most evidence on the causes and magnitude of industry localization has been based on stories, rather than statistics. This paper examines the location choices of 751 Japanese manufacturing plants built in the U.S. since 1980. Conditional logit estimates support the hypothesis that industry-level agglomeration benefits play an important role in location decisions.

On the Pervasiveness of Home Market Effects

Krugman's model of trade between two countries of unequal size predicts that the country with the relatively large number of consumers is the net exporter and host of a disproportionate share of firms in the differentiated good sector. He terms these results home market effects. This paper analyzes two models that offer alternatives to Krugman's assumptions of Dixit-Stiglitz monopolistic competition with iceberg transport costs. Using a framework of location choice, we generate strikingly similar results for the three models. The common ingredients of these imperfect competition models are trade costs and increasing returns to scale.

Describing regional trends in Childhood obesity indicators in the US from 2007-2017 using Youth Risk Behavior Survey data

Obesity is endemic in the United States among adults and children. Behavioral risk factors for developing obesity are well documented, as well as the long-term health impacts observed from becoming obese during childhood. These impacts can permeate into adulthood even if positive changes to an individual’s weight status are achieved, making this issue one of great public health importance. An effort to better understanding this public health problem in children has come from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). Administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention every two years, this survey includes questions to gather data on the risk-taking behaviors of children, including those related to obesity development. Prevalence of obesity within the United States varies depending on the geographic location examined, and this study utilizes data from the YRBS to elicit differences in associations of risk factors of respondents and their body mass indexes between the four regions of the United States

Vertical Networks and US Auto Parts Exports: Is Japan Different?

This paper develops a model in which upstream network insiders' conduct relationship specific investment that induces the downstream firm to transact within networks. The scale of destination-country production and part-specific measures of the importance of network relationships and engineering costs are used to explain the pattern of U.S. auto parts exports. Our results support the prediction that large scale promotes relationship-specific investment and reduces imports. Also, while Japan is a large parts importer, the composition of its imports is shifted away from parts where vertical keiretsu are prominent. Nations hosting U.S.-owned automakers import more U.S. parts.

The Attraction of Foreign Manufacturing Investments: Investment Promotion and Agglomeration Economies

We study Japanese investments between 1980 and 1992 to assess the effectiveness of state promotion efforts in light of strong agglomeration economies in Japanese investment. Two policy variables are consistently shown to influence the location of investment - foreign trade zones and labor subsidies. We use simulations to explore the impact these policies had on the geographic distribution of Japanese investment. The simulations reveal that in aggregate promotion programs largely offset each other; however, unilateral withdrawal of promotion causes individual states to lose substantial amounts of foreign investment.

The role of SLR and LLR in relativity

While General Relativity has been adopted as the standard theory of relativity, there are alternative theories, with important implications for gravitational physics, which can only be discounted with tests of sufficient accuracy. In addition to its contributions to lunar and solar system dynamics, Lunar Laser Ranging, in combination with other solar system data continues to refine some important limits. Satellite laser ranging tracking of geodetic satellites can provide similar tests, but the accuracy is usually limited by gravitational and nongravitational perturbations