Accelerating Japan's Economic Growth: Resolving Japan's Growth Controversy (Routledge Studies in the Growth Economies of Asia)
Language: English
Pages: 204
ISBN: 0415666481
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The Japanese economy is beginning to show signs of recovery after years of stagnation/deflation, but many Japanese policymakers warn that this economic growth may be sluggish: slower than in the United States and certainly slower than in other East Asian countries. Japan faces significant economic problems, including an aging population, a large fiscal deficit, and the need to adjust to the IT economy and to competition with the rest of East Asia. A slow growth scenario would greatly reduce opportunities for new productive investment and would make it increasingly difficult to provide for Japan's growing social needs.
The authors of this book argue that Japan can and should grow more rapidly, and examine the reasons for the sluggish performance of the Japanese economy. For example, some Japanese economic sectors, particularly in distribution and finance, have failed to take advantage of new information and communications technology to accelerate the growth of productivity, as has happened in other countries, such as the US. Production function studies and econometric model simulations suggest that with appropriate policies the Japanese economy can grow more rapidly and deal with its future problems. The book posits a number of policy proposals which would help to accelerate Japan's economic growth
This book will be of interest to students of the Japanese economy, macroeconomics and international economies, and also to policymakers and professionals interested in Japan’s economy.
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laboratory equipment, aircraft, and so on. Japanese industry has been a leader in many of these products, though in the case of many consumer products other East Asian countries have already assumed important positions. New technology has been the basis for establishing sophisticated new industries in Japan and in the other advanced East Asian countries. These developments have contributed to productivity, but in view of changing product specifications the gains attributable to them have
those of the study about the Japanese macroeconomy. 46 IT and productivity growth Table 5.4 Output elasticity of gross output (X) with respect to IT capital stock—the Japanese Case All other variables held at actual values in 1985 and 1995 ITS Elasticity in 1985 Elasticity in 1995 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 200 300 0.0088 0.0165 0.0245 0.0325 0.0406 0.0486 0.0567 0.0648 0.0729 0.0810 0.1626 0.2449 0.0216 0.0428 0.0641 0.0855 0.1069 0.1284 0.1500 0.1716 0.1932 0.2149 0.4344 0.6586
mature or developed financial system such as the US economy can raise its productivity growth rate even after a long economic slump, if it can successfully ride the waves of the information technology revolution. At the other side of the Pacific Ocean, in Japan, a different state of affairs has existed since the 1990s. We have reviewed Japan’s experience in the 1990s and learned that roughly 2.5% of the annual productivity growth constitutes a fundamental trend or a minimum baseline of the
important to recognize the impact of the IT revolution on the Japanese production function. Analysis based on a production function that fully recognizes the implications of new technology investments and applications on productivity is necessary. Such an approach would imply a higher rate of potential productivity growth, and would have implications for continued moderate inflation and for improving public revenues. It would depend on, and permit, more aggressive public policies. In this study
entered the deregulated markets. There have been significant increases in competition and improvements in productivity and reductions in prices. It is not clear, however, that these changes always improve the quality of service provided. Today, there is again some tendency toward industrial concentration. Some examples from the United States 93 Some of the energy distribution companies remain regulated. But there is broad agreement that the deregulated industries in a competitive environment