IUJ Repository (International Univ. of Japan)
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Current topics in women's rights and equality within an English-medium university program for international cooperation
Get PDFGender-related topics are becoming increasingly popular in university courses in Japan, including those in English-medium content programs. This is at least in part due to the urgent need for gender equality in many areas of Japanese society such as political representation and labor rights protection. In this working paper, I introduce topics included in an interdisciplinary university program which prepares students for future careers in international cooperation. Students learn about various issues which are important for their future success in global contexts, and for this it is indispensable to discuss gender-related topics such as women's rights, LGBT issues, reproductive health, equal access to education, and more. Such innovative learning opportunities are a small but significant step forward for gender awareness and equality in Japan as well as for Japan's status in the international community. (This paper is written in preparation for the GALE Forum at the International JALT Conference 2016: Transformations in Gender Research and Learning.)departmental bulletin pape
Remittances and the Redistributive Tax Policy in Ghana: A Computable General Equilibrium Approach
Get PDFThis paper numerically explores the distributive tax policy for improving both efficiency and equity with increased remittances in Ghana within a computable general equilibrium (CGE) framework. The generalized framework with the latest Ghanaian input-output table of year 2005 with 59 different production sectors provides the following results: First, the government can improve both efficiency and equity by using a government surplus generated by increased remittances without additional tax revenue. Second, if the government is concerned about equity, then a surplus used for more direct transfers to the rural households results in the best outcome in terms of equity. Third, such a policy also results in the improvement in efficiency. Welfare of not only rural but also urban households improves by such a policy through its strong stimulation effect on the demand side. Fourth, while the impact through the supply side is relatively smaller, an introduction of subsidies to production of the 'Cocoa Beans' sector results in the best outcome for the improvement in efficiency and equity among all supply side tax policies. Fifth, if the government is concerned only about efficiency, then a policy to use a surplus for more government spending on education or health achieves the highest efficiency through its direct demand effect. Under such a policy, the positive impact on equity is limited. Finally, while the Ghanaian economy can enjoy the largest benefits in improved efficiency as a whole when a surplus is used for more government spending on education or health, increased efficiency gain will be more distributed to the government sector in comparison with the case when a surplus is used for more direct transfers to the rural households.departmental bulletin pape
Dynamic Capabilities in the Persence of a Strategic Paradox
Get PDFPrior research in dynamic capabilities has seldom addressed the question of how they operate over time in the presence of conflicting objectives of a strategic paradox, particularly beyond the exploration-exploitation contention. In the context of aggregationadaptation paradox, we have collected and analyzed a large number of specific activities and changes in the resource base through an in-depth case study based on 46 interviews and other data sources. Our findings reveal new conceptual insights on the process side of dynamic capabilities: coevolutionary interplay between pro-aggregation and proadaptation changes in the resource base, paradox-enacting dynamic capabilities at the level of discrete activities with differing blends of aggregation and adaptation, and organizational constructs for paradox-enacting dynamic capabilities which are in stark contrast to known forms of organizational ambidexterity.departmental bulletin pape
Remittances and the Brain Drain in Ghana: A Computable General Equilibrium Approach
Get PDFThis paper presents a computable general equilibrium (CGE) framework to numerically examine the impact of remittances and the brain drain on poverty reduction as well as income inequality in Ghana. The generalized framework with the latest Ghanaian input-output table of year 2005 with 59 different production sectors provides the following results: On the impact of remittances, more remittances reduce poverty, and expand the Ghanaian economy. On the impact on income inequality, it depends on who receives more remittances. If the rural (urban) households receive more remittances, then income inequality shrinks (widens). On the impact of the brain drain, it is negative to both poverty reduction and income inequality, even if the externality effect of the brain drain is taken into account. On the overall impact of both remittances and the brain drain in Ghana, income inequality becomes more severe. On the other hand, the overall impact on poverty reduction, it depends on the amount of remittances as well as the sector where the brain drain occurs. As long as the brain drain occurs in either the education or the health sector, then the positive impact of remittances outweighs the negative impact of the brain drain. However, if the brain drain occurs in the public administration sector, then more remittances are needed to offset the negative impact of more brain drain. Furthermore, if the brain drain occurs in all sectors by more than 5 percent, then even a 30 percent increase in remittances to both rural and urban households is not large enough to offset the negative impact of the brain drain, thus, eventuating in the Ghanaian economy being damaged as a whole.departmental bulletin pape
Gender salary and promotion gaps in Japanese academia: Results from science and engineering
Get PDFUsing original survey data on Japanese academics in science and engineering, we examined the gender salary and promotion gaps. We found a 6% gender salary gap after controlling for ranks. This gap was unaffected when quality and quantity of publications were controlled for. In contrast, promotion gap disappeared when publication variables were controlled for. We failed to find negative effects of marriage and children on women's salary and promotion, though a positive sorting into motherhood could conceal such negative effects, and we provided suggestive evidence for this. Men and women are equally likely to move to other universities voluntarily, and the salary premiums from these job changes are the same for both genders, suggesting that outside job offers are not responsible for the gender salary gap. Finally, there are substantial gender differences in academic labor market dropout rates, which could lead to underestimation of the gender salary and promotion gaps.departmental bulletin pape
Has Information Technology Competence Ever Increased? Evidences from the Annual User Satisfaction Survey of Information Technology Services
Get PDFThis study challenges a common myth on information technology competence and examins whether information technology competence has increased as the technology develops. An analytic framework considers if an inforation technology service is technologically sophisticated and if it is developed for general purpose for allusers. The annual user satisfaction survey data from 1998 through 2014 are analyzed to present historical patterns of use of information technology services, satisfaction, and unawareness. A surprising finding is that informaiton technology competence has been stable and rarely increased or decreased rapidly. The usage rate of information technology service, satisfaction, and unawreness are also relatively stable and consistent as a whole. Finally, usage and satisfaction of information technology services are not always positively related. This research suggests that the prevailing thought on information technolgoy competence is questionable and even misleading and calls for further research on this conclusion.departmental bulletin pape
Citizen Participation in Governmental Decision Making in Japan: A Review
Get PDFOver the past decade citizens have become much more involved in several aspects of policy-making and governance. Public participation in decision-making is seen to generate more accountability, better performance, strengthening of democracy, and counters the influence of powerful dominant groups. The trend is increasing worldwide, and in Japan as well. In this paper we review the nature of public participation in Japan, with the aim to understand the dynamics and nuances of participation in a country with a distinct cultural heritage. A total of 36 papers specific to public participation in Japan (versus volunteerism) are reviewed, from five English publication databases. We acknowledge several meaningful and relevant articles published only in Japanese may have got missed in the review. The paper, therefore, may not be a comprehensive representation of the dynamics of participation in Japan. Nevertheless, the paper does provide cross sectional data of various types of situations faced by the Japanese citizens and the administration, and is one of the first reviews to explore the nature and dynamics of public participation in Japan.departmental bulletin pape
Trade and Spatial Growth: the Nexus that was not missing
Get PDFTrade leads to an acceleration of economic growth as well as to its spatial concentration. While tradegrowth nexus has been the primary focus in trade analyses, until the recent past spatial growth concentration has received little space there. It appears that the simplifying assumptions of trade\nmodels and analyses have become the main stumbling blocks that push spatial growth away from trade theory. It is the rapid change in the shape of the world economy led by trade liberalization and global integration that have created this space to place intra-national economics within the premises of international economics. Spatial growth within trade analyses was, however, not bizarre to trade theory. Bertil Ohlin as well as his teacher, Eli Heckscher – the coauthors of the Heckscher-Ohlin theory of comparative advantage - did not miss the point that comparative advantage is based on location-specific factors. The analyses of the locations of production and economic geography seem to have missed the early contribution to the subject by Ohlin and Heckscher who were not confined themselves by the simplifying assumptions of their own trade theory. The paper derives from its literature review that the benefits of agglomeration, the costs of connectivity, the degree of factor mobility, and the size of the markets are essential components that form centripetal forces of spatial growth concentration.departmental bulletin pape
Fiscal Stimulus and Unemployment Dynamics
Get PDFFocusing on both hiring and firing margins, this paper revisits effects of fiscal expansion on unemployment. We provide evidence that an increase in government spending increases the job finding rate and reduces the separation rate, lowering unemployment in the U.S. by using a structural VAR model. We then develop a DSGE model with search frictions where job separation is endogenously determined. Our model can capture the empirical pattern of responses of the job finding, separation, and unemployment rates to a government spending shock. We also demonstrate that model's predictions are in contrast with earlier studies that assume exogenous separation.departmental bulletin pape
Effects of climate shocks to Philippine international trade
Get PDFAs climate change is established to occur on scientific bases, it is imperative to identify the effect of climate shocks on economy. According to international organizations, agriculture, forestry and fisheries are the most vulnerable sectors to climate change predominantly for developing and tropical countries, and thus it is hypothesized to have significant impacts on world-wide international trade. Although Jones and Olken (2010) demonstrate the effect of climate shocks on exports with U.S. and world data, the evidence is still highly scarce for developing countries. Given these conditions, we examine how climate shocks affect international trade by focusing on the case of the Philippines as a representative of developing and tropical countries. To this end, we apply a fixed effects model with the data of Philippine international trade and world climate from 1991 to 2009. In particular, the novelty lies in examining both exports and imports within a single empirical framework and in clarifying climate shocks on both flows of international trade. The results show that both Philippine exports and imports are negatively affected by an increase in temperature of the trade partners. We have also identified some specific sectors are highly vulnerable such as agriculture and manufacturing. Overall, these results imply that Philippine international trade shrinks as the world temperature rises, and the same qualitative results may apply to other developing and tropical countries whose features are somewhat similar to those of the Philippines. The findings could be considered an important guidance on collective policy decisions on climate change in an international community especially as developing and tropical countries would have difficulties in mitigating the effect only by themselves.departmental bulletin pape