Effects of the Quantitative Easing Policy: A Survey of Empirical Analyses

This paper surveys the empirical analyses that examine the effects of the Bank of Japan's (BOJ's) quantitative easing policy (QEP), which was implemented from March 2001 through March 2006. The survey confirms a clear effect whereby the commitment to maintain the QEP fostered the expectations that the zero interest rate would continue into the future, thereby lowering the yield curve centering on the short- to medium-term range. There were also phases in which an increase in the current account balances held by financial institutions at the BOJ bolstered this expectation. While the results were mixed as to whether expansion of the monetary base and altering the composition of the BOJ's balance sheet led to portfolio rebalancing, generally this effect, if any, was smaller than that stemming from the commitment. When viewing the QEP's impact on Japan's economy through various transmission channels, many of the analyses suggest that the QEP created an accommodative environment in terms of corporate financing. In particular, the QEP contained financial institutions' funding costs from the market and staved off financial institutions' funding uncertainties. The QEP's effect on raising aggregate demand and prices was often limited, due largely to the then progressing corporate balance-sheet adjustment, as well as the zero bound constraint on interest rates.Zero interest rate policy; Quantitative easing policy; Commitment; Zero bound constraint on interest rates; Deflation

A Historical Evaluation of Financial Accelerator Effects in Japan's Economy

In this paper, we carry out a historical evaluation of the financial accelerator effects, which were mainly generated by the changes in asset prices, operating on Japan's economy since the 1980s. For this purpose, we estimate a Japanese financial accelerator model, which is a modified version of Bernanke, Gertler and Gilchrist [1999]'s model, and identify the historical exogenous shocks affecting the evolution of firms' net worth. As a result, we confirm that the estimated parameter on the corporate balance sheet channel is statistically significant. We also find that the identified net worth shocks, which change the amount of firms' debt holdings relative to their total values, produced a large and persistent impact on Japan's output and prices. This result strongly suggests that the negative financial accelerator effects were indispensable to explain the mechanism behind Japan's long stagnation during the 1990s and early 2000s, as well as indicating that the deflation of general prices since the late 1990s has been at least partly attributed to the same cause.

Conditions for substorm onset by the fast reconnection mechanism

The fast reconnection mechanism, involving slow shocks and Alfvénic fast plasma jets, is most responsible for the explosive conversion of magnetic energy associated with geomagnetic substorms and solar flares. In this paper, the spontaneous fast reconnection model is applied to well-known phenomena of substorms. When the east-west width of the tail current sheet becomes 3–4 times larger than its north-south thickness, the fast reconnection mechanism can fully be established, which may lead to substorm onset. The resulting Alfvénic jet can exactly explain, both qualitatively and quantitatively, the in-situ satellite observations of the traveling compression regions (TCRs) associated with large-scale plasmoids propagating down the tail. Also, the earthward fast reconnection jet causes drastic magnetic field dipolarization, so that the sheet current ahead of the magnetic loop of closed field lines suddenly turns its direction toward the loop footpoint and a large-scale current wedge is formed according to the growth of field-aligned currents. It is demonstrated that an MHD generator arises ahead of the magnetic loop and drives the current wedge to distinctly enhance the current density in a pair of thin layers of the loop footpoint, giving rise to drastic heating in the form of two ribbons

Cultivating Urbanism: Transforming the Existing City Through Agrarian Interventions

The aim of this investigation is to develop a new urban scheme for Cultivating Urbanism. The research will focus on adapting agricultural practices into the existing urban fabric and argue for the reason to do so. The objective is to develop existing cities into pedestrian friendly, mix-use and high-density, which are filled with agriculture. The argument for Cultivating Urbanism is based on both New Urbanism and Agricultural Urbanism. People around the globe are showing remarkable interests in agriculture, food securities, community deficiency, nature-deficit disorder, carbon footprints, heat island effect, stormwater management and peak oil. I believe it is timely to pursue new practices of agriculture in urban areas and condition. The research studies the history of the relationship between the urban system and agriculture practices. Until recently, agriculture and the city were generally regarded as two distinctively separate classes, even antithetical. By analyzing and extracting the advantages of both New Urbanism and Agricultural Urbanism, this study propose new urban typologies. It envisions a new city that transcends and mediates the history and opportunities between the city and agriculture practices. The paradigm of ecology, lifestyle, food products, and physical and psychological benefits are investigated. Shinjuku, Tokyo is chosen to investigate and install the principles of Cultivating Urbanism. The research of the site covers broadly in food habits, food safety, food independence and spacial analysis. (The general demographic, landuse and climate analysis are introduced in Appendix A.) Various urban agriculture methodologies were adapted to certain buildings as prototypes; they include low and high-rise residences, hotels, public parks, schools, restaurants, commercial and public high-rise buildings and underground walkways

Self-similar solution of fast magnetic reconnection: Semi-analytic study of inflow region

An evolutionary process of the fast magnetic reconnection in ``free space'' which is free from any influence of outer circumstance has been studied semi-analytically, and a self-similarly expanding solution has been obtained. The semi-analytic solution is consistent with the results of our numerical simulations performed in our previous paper (see Nitta et al. 2001). This semi-analytic study confirms the existence of self-similar growth. On the other hand, the numerical study by time dependent computer simulation clarifies the stability of the self-similar growth with respect to any MHD mode. These results confirm the stable self-similar evolution of the fast magnetic reconnection system.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure