Asking About Changes in Happiness in a Daily Web Survey

This paper investigates whether the level of happiness and integrated process of changes in happiness are the same. Using the daily data of two waves of four and six months each, we found that the level of happiness is stationary, whereas the integrated process of changes is non-stationary with a rising trend, implying that they are different series. An examination of the causes of the difference indicated that although adaptation completely influences the level of happiness, it only partially influences the change in happiness. This may be because the latter is based on a comparison between today and yesterday.

Market Efficiency and International Linkage of Stock Prices: An Analysis with High-Frequency Data

This paper uses one-minute returns on the TOPIX and S&P500 to examine the efficiency of the Tokyo and New York Stock Exchanges. Our major finding is that Tokyo completes reactions to New York within six minutes, but New York reacts within fourteen minutes. Dividing the sample period into three subperiods, we found that the efficiency has improved and the magnitude of reaction has become larger over the period in both markets. The magnitude of response in New York to a fall in Tokyo is roughly double that of a rise.international linkage, stock prices, market efficiency, high frequency data

Note on the Interpretation of Convergence Speed in the Dynamic Panel Model

Studies using the dynamic panel regression approach have found the speed of income convergence among the world and regional economies to be high. For example, Lee et al. (1997, 1998) report the income convergence speed to be 30% per annum. This note argues that their estimates may be seriously overstated. Using a factor model, we show that the coefficient of the lagged income in their specification may not be the long-run convergence speed, but the adjustment speed of the short-run deviation from the long-run equilibrium path. We give an example of an empirical analysis, where the short-run adjustment speed is about 40%.Convergence speed, Dynamic panel regression, Factor model

Market Efficiency and International Linkage of Stock Prices: An Analysis with High-Frequency Data

This paper uses one-minute returns on the TOPIX and S&P500 to examine the efficiency of the Tokyo and New York Stock Exchanges. Our major finding is that Tokyo completes reactions to New York within six minutes, but New York reacts within fourteen minutes. Dividing the sample period into three subperiods, we found that the efficiency has improved and the magnitude of reaction has become larger over the period in both markets. The magnitude of response in New York to a fall in Tokyo is roughly double that of a rise.

Are Chinese Stock Investors Watching Tokyo? An Analysis of Intraday High-Frequency Data from Two Chinese Stock Markets and the Tokyo Stock

Intraday minute-by-minute data from the Tokyo, Shanghai, and Shenzhen stock exchanges from January 7, 2008, to January 23, 2009, are analyzed to investigate the interaction between the Japanese and Chinese stock markets. We focus on two windows of time during which all three stock exchanges trade shares simultaneously, and specify appropriate lags in vector autoregression (VAR) estimations. Granger causality tests, variance decompositions, and impulse response functions show that, while Tokyo is impacted by Chinese stock price movements, China is relatively isolated. This implies that investors in Japan are more internationally oriented and alert to foreign markets than those in China.international linkage of stock prices, high frequency data, inefficiency, overreaction, China

Reluctance to Lend and Its Spatial Differences in Japanfs Lost Decade: What Can We Learn from It?

This paper aims to elucidate whether supply side factors played a crucial role in causing the greluctance to lendh in Japan in the 1990s. We estimate loan supply and demand functions using prefectural panel data and calculate their shifts. Our analysis reveals that the demand side played an equal or greater role, even in the context of the historical financial crisis in Japan during the period 1997-2000, and that the reluctance to lend was severer in the urban prefectures. These findings suggest that countermeasures in the banking sector that uniformly influence all regions may not achieve the expected recovery.credit crunch, prefectural panel data, shift of functions, Japanese loan market

Has Competition in the Japanese Banking Sector Improved?

This paper investigates whether competition in the Japanese banking sector has improved in the last quarter of the 20th century. By estimating the first order condition of profit maximization, together with the cost function and the inverse demand function, we found that competition had improved, especially in the 1970s and in the first half of the 1980s. The results fail to reject a Cournot oligopoly for city banks for most of the period, while they do reject it for regional banks for the overall period. This suggests that competition among city banks was stronger than that among regional banks.Japanese banks, degree of competition, loan market.

How Fast Do Tokyo and New York Stock Exchanges Respond to Each Other?: An Analysis with High-Frequency Data

This paper uses one-minute returns on the TOPIX and S&P500 to examine the efficiency of the Tokyo and New York Stock Exchanges. Our major finding is that Tokyo completes reactions to New York within six minutes, but New York reacts within fourteen minutes. Dividing the sample period into three subperiods, we found that the response time has shortened and the magnitude of reaction has become larger over the period in both markets. The magnitude of response in New York to a fall in Tokyo is roughly double that of a rise.international linkage, stock prices, market efficiency, high frequency data

Recent Competition in the Japanese Life Insurance Industry

This paper examines a change in the level of competition in the Japanese life insurance industry over the last 17 years. We estimate the first order condition for profit-maximizing insurance oligopolies to obtain the degree of non-competition and collusion. Estimation results suggest that: 1) not only stock companies, but also mutual companies maximize their own profits rather than pay out dividends to policyholders; 2) competition has become stronger since 1995; 3) revision of Insurance Industry Law and failures of insurance companies promoted the competition; and 4) the competition in the recent years is still more lax than the pre-war period.