Incentives, Gaming, and the Nonlinear Pay Scheme: Evidence from Personnel Data in a Large Japanese Auto Sales Firm

This paper examines incentives and gaming behavior in a sales workforce using personnel records from one of Japan's largest auto sales chains. The company replaced a simple, linear compensation system in 2000 with nonlinear pay scheme kinked around a draw line. Econometric analysis indicates the following. First, the new pay scheme yields productivity increases, although a month-end deadline induces gaming behavior. Second, the incentive effect is weaker for used car sales staff than for new car sales staff. The difference can be attributed to disincentives such as smaller gross profits and larger servicing burdens that discouraged workers near the threshold from putting forth additional effort.Compensation, Automobile Dealership, Incentives, Gaming

Transforming Incentives: Analysis of Personnel and Employee Output Data in a Large Japanese Auto Sales Firm

This paper analyzes the economic consequences of performance-oriented human resource (HR) system reform at Auto Japan (pseudonym), one of the largest Japanese auto sales firms, using personnel and employee output data. The author overviews the three major components of the HR reform: base wages, performance-based pay, and performance rating systems. Then the author examines the productivity effect of the reform. The performance-based pay was changed from combining a base wage with a simple performance pay system to instead a scheme kinked around a draw line (representing aggregate base pay) to intensify incentives. The introduction of the draw formula performance-based pay system raised the productivity of the new car sales staff, but generally failed to raise the productivity of the used car sales staff. The evidence suggests that while Auto Japan's performance-oriented HR system reform, which was typical of reforms instituted among major Japanese firms in the late 1990s, changed the wage structure and grading pattern of employees, it brought only slight improvement in individual productivity.

The Union Wage Premium, Voice, and Nonunion Workers' Attitudes: Before and After Japan's Lost Decade

Using microdata derived from the same questionnaire surveys conducted in 1992 and 2007, this paper examines changes in the economic effects of labor unions and attitudes toward unionization among nonunion workers in Japan. The main findings are as follows. First, while no union wage effects were observed in 1992, a wage premium for male workers was found in 2007. However, no change was observed for female workers. Second, with regard to union voice effects, no such effect was evident in 1992, but in 2007, a decline among men in the propensity for voluntary quitting (and, to some extent, job satisfaction) was found. In contrast, among women, no such union voice effects could be detected. Third, among male nonunion workers, support for unionization had increased between 1992 and 2007. On the other hand, the increase in support for unionization among female nonunion workers was scant when compared with that for their male counterparts. Furthermore, if there were other, nonunion forms of representing employees' voice at the workplace, this largely substituted for female support for unionization.

ニンチショウ コウレイシャ ノ カゾク カイゴシャ ノ カイゴ フタンカン ニ チャクモク シタ カンベン ナ シエン ト ソノ コウカ

認知症高齢者の家族介護者が抱く介護負担感に関する簡便な支援の効果を明らかにした.研究対象者は,研究協力施設の2施設を利用している認知症高齢者の主介護者34人とした.介入として,短縮版Zarit介護負担尺度日本語版(J-ZBI_8)に基づいた簡便な支援を介護支援専門員が行った.対象者には,支援1か月前,支援直後,支援1か月後に聞き取り調査か自記式質問紙調査を行った.介護者の概要は,女性が28人と多くを占めていた.支援前後では,介護負担感(ρ=0.992),肯定的認識(ρ=0.735),介護継続意思(ρ=0.152)で有意差は認められなかった.しかし,介護負担感がハイリスク群の対象者では,介護継続意思の変化量が非ハイリスク群と比べて有意に向上していた(ρ=0.045).本研究の結果から,認知症高齢者の介護者の介護負担感の軽減には,主観的な介護負担感を把握し,それに基づく支援をさらに充実させることで効果を高める必要性が示唆された.The present study aimed to verify the efficacy of using an onsite prompt support for caregiver burden for caregivers of persons with dementia in caregiving appraisal. Thirty-four primary caregivers of persons with dementia staying at two care facilities consented to participate in this study. Long-term care support specialists provided support based on care burden standards. The measures were administered as selfreport questionnaires or as interviews before the support was conducted, during the support, immediately after, and one month after to evaluate changes in caregiver appraisal. Participants were predominately women (n = 28) . There was no significant difference in caregiver burden (p = 0.992), positive appraisal (p = 0.735), or caregiving continuation (p = 0.152) before and after the support. However, among participants who had a high risk of caregiver burden, continuation of caregiving improved significantly over the period of support; this was not found for participants without a high risk. According to the study results, caregiver burden among caregivers of persons with dementia could be reduced by improving their understandingof the subjective feelings of caregiver burden.研究報

The ASTRO-H X-ray Observatory

The joint JAXA/NASA ASTRO-H mission is the sixth in a series of highly successful X-ray missions initiated by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). ASTRO-H will investigate the physics of the high-energy universe via a suite of four instruments, covering a very wide energy range, from 0.3 keV to 600 keV. These instruments include a high-resolution, high-throughput spectrometer sensitive over 0.3-2 keV with high spectral resolution of Delta E < 7 eV, enabled by a micro-calorimeter array located in the focal plane of thin-foil X-ray optics; hard X-ray imaging spectrometers covering 5-80 keV, located in the focal plane of multilayer-coated, focusing hard X-ray mirrors; a wide-field imaging spectrometer sensitive over 0.4-12 keV, with an X-ray CCD camera in the focal plane of a soft X-ray telescope; and a non-focusing Compton-camera type soft gamma-ray detector, sensitive in the 40-600 keV band. The simultaneous broad bandpass, coupled with high spectral resolution, will enable the pursuit of a wide variety of important science themes.Comment: 22 pages, 17 figures, Proceedings of the SPIE Astronomical Instrumentation "Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray

Hitomi (ASTRO-H) X-ray Astronomy Satellite

The Hitomi (ASTRO-H) mission is the sixth Japanese x-ray astronomy satellite developed by a large international collaboration, including Japan, USA, Canada, and Europe. The mission aimed to provide the highest energy resolution ever achieved at E  >  2  keV, using a microcalorimeter instrument, and to cover a wide energy range spanning four decades in energy from soft x-rays to gamma rays. After a successful launch on February 17, 2016, the spacecraft lost its function on March 26, 2016, but the commissioning phase for about a month provided valuable information on the onboard instruments and the spacecraft system, including astrophysical results obtained from first light observations. The paper describes the Hitomi (ASTRO-H) mission, its capabilities, the initial operation, and the instruments/spacecraft performances confirmed during the commissioning operations for about a month