Productivity Growth and R&D Spillovers from University to Industry

This paper examines the link between Japanese universities' education and research and productivity growth in industry, using a newly available data set on 12 Japanese industries for the period between 1973 and 1998. We obtain empirical evidence showing that the supply of highly educated human capital from universities to industry plays an important role in the productivity growth of Japanese manufacturing industry during 1973|1985. We confirmed that the rate of return to R&D spillovers from universities has declined in recent years.total factor productivity, inter-industry R&D spillover, university-industry R&D spillovers

An Alternative System GMM Estimation in Dynamic Panel Models

The system GMM estimator in dynamic panel data models which combines two moment conditions, i.e., for the differenced equation and for the model in levels, is known to be more efficient than the first-difference GMM estimator. However, an initial optimal weight matrix is not known for the system estimation procedure. Therefore, we suggest the use of 'a suboptimal weight matrix' which may reduce the finite sample bias whilst increasing its efficiency. Using the Kantorovich inequality, we find that the potential efficiency gain becomes large when the variance of individual effects increases compared to the variance of the idiosyncratic errors. (Our Monte Carlo experiments show that the small sample properties of the suboptimal system estimator are shown to be much more reliable than any other conventional system GMM estimator in terms of bias and efficiency.Dynamic panel data, sub-optimal weighting matrix, KI upper boud

Plant Turnover and TFP Dynamics in Japanese Manufacturing

This study analyzes the cause of the slowdown in Japan's TFP growth during the 1990s. Many preceding studies, examining the issue at the macro- or industry-level, have found that the slowdown was primarily due to the stagnation in TFP growth in the manufacturing sector. Using establishment level panel data covering the entire sector, we investigate the causes of the TFP slowdown and find that the reallocation of resources from less efficient to more efficient firms was very slow and limited. This "low metabolism" seems to be an important reason for the slowdown in Japan's TFP growth.

Plant Turnover and TFP Dynamics in Japanese Manufacturing

This study analyzes the cause of the slowdown in Japan's TFP growth during the 1990s. Many preceding studies, examining the issue at the macro- or industry-level, have found that the slowdown was primarily due to the stagnation in TFP growth in the manufacturing sector. Using establishment level panel data covering the entire sector, we investigate the causes of the TFP slowdown and find that the reallocation of resources from less efficient to more efficient firms was very slow and limited. This "low metabolism" seems to be an important reason for the slowdown in Japan's TFP growth.

Cross-Border Acquisitions and Target Firms' Performance: Evidence From Japanese Firm-Level Data

Using Japanese firm-level data for the period from 1994-2002, this paper examines whether a firm is chosen as an acquisition target based on its productivity level, profitability and other characteristics and whether the performance of Japanese firms that were acquired by foreign firms improves after the acquisition. In our previous study for the Japanese manufacturing sector, we found that M&As by foreigners brought a larger and quicker improvement in total factor productivity (TFP) and profit rates than M&As by domestic firms. However, it may argued that firms acquired by foreign firms showed better performance simply because foreign investors acquired more promising Japanese firms than Japanese investors did. In order to address this potential problem of selection bias problem, in this study we combine a difference-in-differences approach with propensity score matching. The basic idea of matching is that we look for firms that were not acquired by foreign firms but had similar characteristics to firms that were acquired by foreigners. Using these firms as control subjects and comparing the acquired firms and the control subjects, we examine whether firms acquired by foreigners show a greater improvement in performance than firms not acquired by foreigners. Both results from unmatched samples and matched samples show that foreign acquisitions improved target firms%u2019 productivity and profitability significantly more and quicker than acquisitions by domestic firms. Moreover, we find that there is no positive impact on target firms%u2019 profitability in the case of both within-group in-in acquisitions and in-in acquisitions by domestic outsiders. In fact, in the manufacturing sector, the return on assets even deteriorated one year and two years after within-group in-in acquisition, while the TFP growth rate was higher after within-group in-in acquisitions than after in-in acquisitions by outsiders. Our results imply that in the case of within-group in-in acquisitions, parent firms may be trying to quickly restructure acquired firms even at the cost of deteriorating profitability.

Unilateral vs. cross licensing:A theory and new evidence on the firm-level determinants

This paper examines the firm level determinants of the incidence of cross-licensing. It develops a simple stochastic theory explaining such incidence, and confirms its implications based on new dataset of licensing contracts by Japanese firms. Among major findings are: (1) Licensing probability has an almost linear relationship with the size of a potential licensor. (2) Cross-licensing is more prevalent between large and symmetric firms. (3) A licensing contract with only patents is more likely to involve cross-licensing than that with only trade secret. (4) A licensor is on the average larger than a licensee.cross-licensing licensing contracts patent