IUJ Repository (International Univ. of Japan)
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Spatial Inequalities in Indonesia, 1996-2010: A Hierarchical Decomposition Analysis
Get PDFThis study analyzes spatial inequalities in Indonesia from 1996-2010 using the hierarchical decomposition method. It uses household expenditures rather than regional accounts and tries to investigate the contributions of spatial inequalities to overall expenditure inequality. We find that urban-rural disparity constitutes 15-25% of overall expenditure inequality. A large difference exists between urban and rural areas in the magnitude of inequality among districts. After controlling for the urban and rural difference, inequality among districts accounts for 15-25% of overall inequality. While disparity between five major island regions is negligible, inequalities between districts within provinces appear to have played an increasingly important role in both urban and rural areas. Given unequal geographic distributions of resource endowments, public infrastructure and economic activities, some spatial inequalities are inevitable. Nevertheless, sustained efforts are necessary to reduce spatial inequalities to facilitate national unity, cohesion and stability.departmental bulletin pape
Does More Female Labor Supply Really Save a Graying Japan?
Get PDFThis paper examines the impact of stimulated female labor supply on the Japanese economy as well as the government fiscal imbalance within a numerical dynamic general equilibrium model with multiple overlapping generations, particularly by paying attention to females' time costs of child rearing and elderly care in a graying Japan. Several numerical results indicate that even complete elimination of females' time costs of child rearing and elderly care stimulates the total GDP only by 1 percent. If complete elimination of time costs happens in accordance with no gender gap in wage profiles, then the total GDP expands by 4 percent. The results also suggest importance of government policies not only to stimulate female labor force participation but also to improve human capital accumulation of females to reduce a gender gap in wage profiles.departmental bulletin pape
The Future Prospect of the Long-term Care Insurance in Japan
Get PDFThis paper explores the impact of population aging on the Japanese public longterm care insurnace (LTCI) within a numerical dynamic general equilibrium model with multiple overlapping generations. The impact of three policy options, such as an increase in co-payments, an earlier starting age of contribution, and more distribution of the cost to the public sector, is also examined. The numerial results show that in the next about forty years the burdens on the first (age 65 and over) and second (age 40 to 64) groups become more than 1.7 times and more than 2.7 times as much, respectively. A relatively more increase in the burdens on the second group cannot be avaiodable, even if adjustment of the cost distribution between both groups is made every three years in the future in accordance with the schedule by the MHLW. Furthermore, in order to reduce future burdens in the LTCI, an increase in co-payments is most preferable, rather than an earlier starting age of contribution in longer duration of contribution with lower burdens every year, or a shift of the cost to the public sector followed by a very higher consumption tax.departmental bulletin pape
Motivation to Choose a Public Service Career in Developing Countries: Focused on Philippines, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Indonesia
Get PDFThe current case study has examined five public officials from five different developing countries in Asia to find motivation factors to choose public service careers. Based on the case analysis, social recognition of the job, strong bureaucratic power and network, and family-oriented culture are significant drivers for individuals when they choose their career. Public service motivation factors, such as social contribution or serving to public, however, were not the prior reason to choose public service career in this study.departmental bulletin pape
The State Policy Processes of Tax and Expenditure Limitations in the U.S.
Get PDFPrevious research and theory on policy innovation and diffusion have developed explanatory factors for the adoption of TELs. However, past research on which states adopt TELs have only examined the first adoption dates. However, since the state policy making regarding TELs is more complicated—TELs have been proposed and failed, and multiple TELs have been passed since 1970. These previous studies have limitations and have not considered the comprehensive policy making process of TELs adoption and revision. In this respect, this research empirically examines the differentiated process of adoptions through event history analysis (EHA) using state data from 1970 to 2006. This study reveals the comprehensive policy making process of TEL adoption that can be summarized as follows: (1) having a direct democracy initiative continuously affects the adoption process of TELs; (2) states will imitate other similar states' TELs based on size (expenditure) during the agenda setting process; and (3) Enactment failure of TELs is induced by anticipatory competition that states behave strategically, and successful passage of TELs are driven by direct democracy, and professionalized legislature rather than regional diffusion factors.departmental bulletin pape
Rational Choice Theory and International Communication: A Proposal for a New Interpretation of Article 21 of the Japanese Constitution
Get PDFIn this article, I propose a new interpretation of the Japanese communicative d imension and of Article 21 of the Japanese Constitution (which protects freedom of expression) based on rational choice theory as the theoretical framework. This new approximation proceeds from the assumption that the rationality of an actor (an individual actor or a collective actor like Japan) depends on the capacity of this actor to access and process information. The rationality of this being that the capacity to understand is an ability to satisfy oneʼs own hierarchy of preferences. Therefore, this research proposes a new interpretation of Article 21 of the Japanese Constitution as a constitutional commitment of Japanese society to guarantee its level of rationality as a complex society. To do this, in this research I will offer a deep taxonomic identification and description of rational choice theory evolution and its three complementary formulations (the positive political theory, social choice theory and public choice theory), an approximation of the communicative dimension of Japan and a new interpretation of Article 21 of the Japanese Constitution in the light of the rational choice theory.departmental bulletin pape
Economic Development and Preferences for Redistribution
Get PDFThis study empirically analyzes whether people's preferences for redistribution change as their countries develop. The results show that after controlling for income inequality, political orientation, and demographic and institutional factors, among others, people in more developed countries are more in favor of redistribution. This implies that concern for, or a social norm of caring about, the poor grows as a country becomes richer.departmental bulletin pape
CREATING SHARED VALUE IN THE PRESENCE OF CONFLICTS AND TRADEOFFS: A PARADOX PERSPECTIVE ON BUSINESS AND SOCIETY
Get PDFWhile business and society may engage in mutually beneficial, synergistic interactions, they also face the challenge of managing contentious, tradeoff interactions when their objectives are not aligned. In the diverse fields of studies in business and society, these two modes of business-society interactions have been conceptualized rather separately: mutual gains and synergies in concepts such as social innovation and shared value creation on one hand, and tensions and tradeoffs in studies that involve, for example, competing dimensions of corporate sustainability, conflicting priorities of various stakeholders, and opposing institutional logics in hybrid organizations on the other hand. Grounded in paradox theory, which views contentious and synergistic relationships of dual elements such as business and society as two sides of the same coin, we develop a framework for capturing the two types of business-society interactions at the fine-grained micro level. Our extensive case studies, based on publicly available information, illustrate the framework in detail, i.e., how contentious and synergistic interactions occur and their interplay over time within a context of a specific firm and its interactions with the society around it. Our key observation is that synergy creation and tension management are mutually-influencing and tightly integrated processes in the discourse of fine-grained, business-society interactions.departmental bulletin pape
The Role of Fact-Finding and Interpretation in the Construction of Risk and Suffering: The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster and the Comfort Women Issue
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How Does School Choice Improve Student Achievement? Estimating School-level Competitive Effects and Student-level Peer Effects
Get PDFAlthough school choice programs have played a key role in public education reform in the United States for years, the impact of competition between schools on student achievement remains unclear. This study examines the effects of introducing charter schools on students at neighboring traditional public schools. Unlike prior work, which estimates the effects of charter schools as a whole, I present that such impact consists of school-level competitive effects and student-level peer effects. By using rich panel data and controlling for unobserved peer characteristics, this study demonstrates that three-quarters of the positive charter impact are driven by the former while one-quarter results from the latter. I also show that peer effects play a larger role in math than in reading.departmental bulletin pape