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The author studies the interaction between imperfect labor contracts and international trade in a setting in which workers have private information about their own abilities. When an individual's contribution to firm output can be measured accurately in some activities but not in others, the most able workers select occupations in which their pay most closely reflects their own performance. In a world economy with two otherwise similar countries that have different distributions of talent, the country with the more heterogeneous labor force exports the good that is produced by the most talented individuals. In this country, trade exacerbates the "polarization" of the labor force and often worsens the distribution of income. (Contains 22 notes.)

Presents an inductive, holistic method of analysis of face-to-face communication based on simulated business negotiations between Japanese and American businesspeople. (JC)

The author presents a response to an article which considered the use of the Market Quality Theory concept to explain the key factors involved in the 2008 global financial crisis. The author is not convinced that the article thoroughly explained the lack of monetary policy coordination between the U.S. and Japan. The author refutes the article's emphasis on the role of Japanese trade in the global financial crisis.

The gross value of Australia's agriculture industry in 2001/2002 was A$38.4 billion with 65% allocated to exports. The major exports markets are South East Asia, Japan, USA, and the EU. Products include wool, beef, wheat, cotton, sugar, and wine. For Australia there have been significant changes over time in markets and production arrangements in the international arena. This is also true of the domestic market especially in the area of meat products. Australians, once dominant red meat eaters, have now ‘gone chicken.’ The total yearly consumption of meats averages around 110 kg per person. Beef up until recent years has always been the dominant player. However, in the last 30 years chicken consumption has risen from being a marginal food item to being a product that is expected to eclipse beef consumption in the very near future. This paper explores the trends and examines the changes as they are reflected by the behaviour of consumers and market chain drivers. The paper provides suggestions that could he gainfully employed at the consumer behaviour levels for other meat producers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This symposium includes papers that analyse a number of issues that are likely to play a key role in the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations. These issues are analysed from the perspective of US-Japanese economic relations. In these papers, the economic effects of the WTO negotiating options available to both countries are explored. A final paper examines the important issues raised by the free trade agreements (FTAs) that have or will soon be negotiated by the United States and Japan. Brief summaries of the papers are provided. With all the advantages that have accrued to Japan from the multilateral trading system, it is not surprising that for many years Japan, alone among the world's major economies, stayed aloof from regional trading arrangements. The very past success of the multilateral trading system has made further progress at this level far more complex and has pushed many countries, Japan included, to look to new and deeper regional trading agreements as a more productive path. But it should not be forgotten that while FTAs may be easier to conclude, their benefits are modest compared with what can be gained from a successful Doha Round, and the costs from new distortions imposed on regional trade can be very significant for some of the world's poorer economies. Every good reason remains for Japan to continue to wish to be a pillar of the WTO and of the new Doha Round. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to identify the appropriate form of a regional trading agreement in East Asia by estimating the intra-regional trade bias of various informal regional groups. The major conclusion is that ASEAN+3 would be the natural policy choice for the formation of a regional trading agreement in East Asia. Moreover, ASEAN+3 will not diverge from the principles of open regionalism and multilateralism, when we consider its inherently open character and the positive influence of the United States and Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper empirically analyses the stability of the aggregate import demand function for G7 countries. The standard cointegration test and a test developed by Gregory and Hansen are performed. The results of standard cointegration tests suggest that there is no stable cointegrating relation between real import, real GDP and relative import price for all G7 countries. The cointegrating relation is empirically supported for France and Germany if structural change for cointegrating vector is explicitly taken into consideration. The cointegrating relation is empirically rejected for Canada, Italy, Japan, the UK and the USA. Thus, the stimulation of domestic business conditions will not necessarily link the quantity of imports for these five countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have found that importing goods from R&D-intensive countries raises a country's productivity. In this paper, we investigate econometrically whether foreign direct investment (FDI) also transfers technology across borders. The data indicates that FDI transfers technology, but only in one direction: a country's productivity is increased if it invests in R&D-intensive foreign countries—particularly in recent years—but not if foreign R&D-intensive countries invest in it. Other findings of the paper are that the ratio of foreign-R&D benefits conveyed by outward FDI to foreign R&D benefits conveyed by imports is higher for large countries than it is for small ones, that failure to account for international R&D spillovers leads to upwardly biased estimates of the output elasticity of the domestic R&D capital stock, and that there are much larger transfers of technology from the United States to Japan than there are from Japan to the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper provides a simple comparative analysis of Japanese and US trade with China. In recent years, Japanese exports to China had been growing faster than US exports, but Japanese imports from China had been growing more slowly. A large amount of US and Japanese exports were first shipped to Hong Kong, and then re-exported to China. In 1994, Japan's largest export item to China was general machinery, while US largest export item to China was transportation equipment. According to the rivalry index constructed in the paper, competition in 1994 between US and Japanese firms was most intense in the chemical goods sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vector autoregressions of real growth since 1970 are used to estimate spillovers between the United States, the euro area, Japan, and an aggregate of smaller countries proxying for global shocks. U.S. and global shocks generate significant spillovers, but those from the euro area and Japan are small. This paper calculates the standard errors of impulse-response functions, including uncertainty over the proper Cholesky ordering. Extensions adding exports, commodity prices, and financial variables indicate that financial effects are the largest source of spillovers. The results by subperiod underline the importance of the great moderation in U.S. output fluctuations and associated financial stability in lowering output volatility elsewhere.IMF Staff Papers (2009) 56, 353–383. doi:10.1057/imfsp.2008.23; published online 9 September 2008 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to guide managers' choices of rightmost digits in retail prices by acquiring a better understanding of the psychological mechanisms by which price endings can influence sales. Design/methodology/approach - The paper observes and compares the price endings used in large matched samples of advertised prices in two countries with considerable cultural differences, the USA and Japan. Findings - Although the digit 9 predominates among the rightmost digits of advertised prices in the USA the digit 8 predominates in Japan. In contrast to this difference, the US and Japanese prices are similar in that both show greater use of 9 or 8 endings when this choice lowers the price's leftmost digit and when the advertised price is claimed to be a discount price. Research limitations/implications - Future research should include a wider range of price advertising media and should examine usage patterns of less frequently occurring digits. Practical implications - Setting a price that falls just below a round number can be helpful in creating a low-price image. Setting this just-below price with a 9-ending would be appropriate in the USA and European countries, but in Japan and other Asian countries, it would be more appropriate to set this just-below price with an 8-ending. Originality/value - These results provide guidance to the retail price setter and illustrate to the basic researcher how universal psychological processes and specific cultural meanings can interact to determine consumer perceptions of marketing stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper cointegrating relations between six East and Southeast Asian markets relative to a base cluster of three global markets are investigated in the framework of zero-non-zero (ZNZ) patterned vector error-correction modelling (VECM). The analysis focuses upon market relations both before and after the Asian currency crisis. The strength of integration between markets is also evaluated by extending Geweke's measurement approach within this framework. The results show that, since the crisis, estimated integration strengths have become more powerful between the Asian and global markets, with the US market leading both the Asian markets and the markets of Japan and the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the evolving Australia--Japan bilateral relationship. Key issues discussed include the `drift' and `neglect' in bilateral relations in the 1990s, the current state of the economic relationship, the proliferation of Free Trade Agreements and future directions. A central theme is the importance of bilateral ties for both countries and that shared visions such as building regional cooperation through APEC might be compromised by the proposed Free Trade Agreement between Australia and the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents new measures of final goods trade protection in eight developed countries. The analysis exploits detailed, comprehensive, and careful price comparisons to derive estimates that, it is argued, reliably capture all kinds of barriers. The results show extensive protection. Japan's average tariff equivalent is 57%, those of the European countries range from 48% to 55%, and that of the United States is lowest, at 12%. An applied general-equilibrium analysis of this protection is conducted. The results include the following: Japan's barriers impose large costs on itself; Japanese and U.S. barriers greatly burden poorer countries; the United States would benefit significantly from multilateral, but not unilateral, opening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2010, the export resraints of rare earth in China have been of great concern in the world. On March 13, 2012, the United States( U. S.) , the European Union(EU) and Japan requested consultations with China with respect to China's export restraints of rare earth, tungsten and molybdenum ("Rare Earth Case"). Although the export restraints of rare earth are similar in essence to the disputed measures related to the export restraints on various raw materials in 2009, namely the competition between China and other WTO members, the specific forms of restraints have been developed. Combining to the WTO rules and latest dispute settlements, this paper makes an in-depth study of the dispute triggered by rare earth and tries to propose some countermeasures in attempt to provide resolution for the Rare Earth Case and safeguard legitimate interests of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the WTO Appellate Body Reports on United States–Zeroing (EC) (Article 21.5 DSU – EC) (WT/DS294/AB/RW, 14 May 2009) and United States–Zeroing (Japan) (Article 21.5 DSU – Japan) (WT/DS322/AB/RW, 18 August 2009). The Appellate Body found that the United States had not brought its anti-dumping measures into compliance with the WTO Anti-Dumping Agreement as it continued to use zeroing in annual reviews of anti-dumping orders. We argue that this conclusion – based on a complicated discussion of what constitutes a ‘measure taken to comply’ – could have been reached through a much simpler and direct argument. Continued noncompliance by the United States generates costs to traders targeting the United States and the trading system more generally. We argue that from a broader WTO compliance perspective consideration should be given to stronger multilateral surveillance of anti-dumping practice by all WTO members and to more analysis and effective communication by economists regarding the costs of zeroing and anti-dumping practices more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the macro-determinants of Korea's persistent bilateral trade deficit with Japan but her trade surplus with the US using Johansen's cointegration-error correction model, which includes bilateral trade balance and real exchange rate, domestic and foreign incomes and relative money supply. The empirical results show that all variables included affect bilateral trade balances and there exists a long-run equilibrium among them. Especially, Korean won depreciation improves Korea-US trade balance according to the Marshall-Lerner condition while the J-curve effect between Korea and Japan exists with a little improvement of deterioration of trade balance followed by Korean won depreciation. In addition, domestic economic growth is found to improve persistent trade deficits against Japan and mitigate trade surplus with the US. The short- and long-run effects of monetary policy on Korea-US trade balance are opposite to those on Korea-Japan. The exogenous US income contributes to increase Korea-US trade balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The few existing empirical studies of US-Japan trade agreements have relied primarily on descriptive statistics or univariate time series methods. We conduct a potentially more powerful test by evaluating agreements in the context of well-specified econometric models. Consistent with trade theory, import demand is modeled as a cointegrating relationship with income and relative price variables, where a trade agreement may cause a structural break in the cointegrating vector. Results are mixed, with evidence in several sectors of a possible change in import behavior following market-opening trade agreements, while in other cases no significant impact can be detected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Uruguay Round Agreement on agriculture (UR) has contributed to the increase in U.S. and world rice trade since 1994. Despite this, the Japanese and Korean rice markets continue to be characterized by high levels of trade intervention. This paper attempts to analyze both import markets incorporating econometric estimates and public choice theory in a game theoretic framework. Various scenarios are analyzed. The results show that the overall Nash equilibrium occurs with a 4% tariff reduction for Japan and Korea under the U.S. Market Development Program, which includes the Market Access Program and Foreign Market Development Program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telecommunications is a leading industry that occupies a significant part of the contemporary economy and impacts economic development considerably. Since the 1980s, three major trade disputes in telecommunications – the NTT procurement, MOSS/Motorola, and NTT interconnection charge disputes – have developed between the Japanese and US governments. In responding to US pressures, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) has generally been receptive to US demands and willing to contain negotiations to a bilateral format, unlike the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, which has become resistant to US pressures and active in utilizing multilateral arrangements. This paper shows that explicit government involvement in the industry concerned, combined with strong US pursuit of negotiations, made it difficult for MPT to resist US pressure and resulted in its enactment of measures conciliatory toward the United States. These findings are then applied to brief analyses of other trade disputes to show the generalizability of the approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integrated system of political-economic relations that has prevailed in the Pacific since the September 1951 treaty of peace with Japan, known here as the San Francisco System, is distinctive in comparison with subregional systems elsewhere in the world. This paper outlines key defining features, such as (1) a dense network of bilateral alliances; (2) an absence of multilateral security structures; (3) strong asymmetry in alliance relations, both in security and economics; (4) special precedence to Japan; and (5) liberal trade access to American markets, coupled with relatively limited development assistance. After contrasting this system to analogous arrangements elsewhere, especially in the Atlantic, it explores both the origins and the prognosis of this remarkably durable political-economic entity. Complementary domestic political-economic interests on both sides of the Pacific, reinforcing a brilliant original Japan-centric design by John Foster Dulles, account for persistence, it is argued, while forces for change center on the dynamic emerging role of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to analyze Japan's conciliation with the United States regarding national targets on greenhouse gas emissions in the multilateral climate change negotiations (1990–2001) for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and for the Kyoto Protocol to the Convention. Japan's conciliatory proposals had nothing to do with bilateral pressure from the United States. Why, then, did Japan make special efforts to conciliate with the United States, and offer lenient proposals? I focus on three factors: concern for international status, the costs of the climate change regime and domestic politics. My main argument is that the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry used ‘conciliation’ with the United States in its favor as an excuse for making proposals that would emasculate the climate change regime and as a means of receiving support from the United States for differentiation of national targets on greenhouse gas emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Abstract In the photovoltaic (PV) industrial chain, polysilicon is the most vital product affecting the scale of the entire industry. Polysilicon trade holds the highest profit margin, and the technological developments among countries is unbalanced, promoting international trade among countries. Therefore, analysis of the international polysilicon trade is crucial for understanding the development of the global PV industry. In this paper, we use a social network analysis (SNA) method to study the structure of the global polysilicon trade network and each country's characteristics in the network based on international trade data from 2006 to 2016. Our results show that the network is very concentrated and shows an obvious core-periphery structure. The United States of America (USA), China, Germany and Japan are the most powerful countries in the trade network. We also find that the development of polysilicon trade can represent progress of the PV industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hopefully, this paper will contribute to a better understanding of management approaches in Japan and the United States. It should also provide guidance to multinational corporations, especially American and Japanese firms, in formulating or revising their international transfer pricing policies. In the next section, the research method will be discussed. This is followed by a presentation of the survey results and a discussion of the major differences between the American and Japanese practices. A summary of the conclusions will be provided at the end of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multinational firms can enter a foreign market by taking over existing local firms (acquisitions) or by setting up new ventures (greenfield investments). Surprisingly, there has been limited empirical work on this topic. This paper examines the determinants of this choice by looking at Japanese entries into the United States. By focusing on firms of one country entering a single market, we are able to separate the impact of a firm's strategy from that of the characteristics of the target industry or country. This paper tests simultaneously a number of competing hypotheses. The results suggest that acquisitions are used by Japanese investors with weak competitive advantages, while investors with strong advantages find that greenfield investments are a more efficient way to transfer these advantages to the U.S. Acquisitions are also chosen to enter industries with either very high or very low growth rates, when entry is at a scale that is large relative to the parent, and when entry is into a different industry. The Japanese investor's previous experience of the U.S. market, its financial situation, and its status as a follower in an oligopolistic industry have no statistically significant impact on the entry mode. Neither do U.S. stock market conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the role in global economy of the Japan-U.S. Bilateral relationship. This paper focuses on the author's view of the two countries apart from the general thinking that the U.S. and Japan are on economic collision course. It reviews the possible collaboration and cooperation between the two nations in terms of technological superiority, international finance, and world enterprises. It also shares the view on strong disposition in representatives of bilateral discussions as this will equally bring opportunities to both.

The article presents a summary of comments by various authors to an article which examined the role of foreign direct investments (FDI) from the U.S., Japan and South Korea in the intra-regional trade in East Asia. Warwick McKibbin discusses the role of wages and real exchange rate in trade flow. Fukunari Kimura differentiates the composition of industries in which multinational enterprises (MNE) in Japan and the U.S. are involved in. Fredrik Sjöholm considers the relationship between FDI and trade.

The author comments on a study which examines U.S. exports to China. He believes the key findings of the study shed light on the causes of the trade imbalance between the U.S. and China. He claims that the U.S. is much less export-oriented when compared to other economies. He compares the U.S.-Japan bilateral relationship with the U.S.-China relationship.

The article presents information on the book "Trade With Japan: Has the Door Opened Wider?," edited by Paul Krugman. Ten papers, plus comments, presented at a National Bureau of Economic Research conference held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in October 1989, focus on the economic relationship between the U.S. and Japan. Contributions examine the ways in which Japan's economy interacts with the rest of the world; the developments in Japanese trade since the onset of the strong yen; the recent increase in Japanese imports of manufactured goods from East Asian nations; price behavior in Japanese and U.S. manufacturing; the efficiency of the Japanese distribution system; the Japanese distribution system and access to the Japanese market; the Japanese financial system and the cost of capital; the movement of Japanese land and stock prices to high levels in the 1980s; the history of Japan's industrial policy; and the trade negotiations between the U.S. and Japan.

Abstract: This paper describes the marine fish and invertebrate consumption in three of the world’s major seafood markets (the EU, Japan and the USA) using a series of global maps indicating the likely origin of the seafood consumed by each market. These maps display a high level of dependence by these markets on foreign sources as the serial depletion of local fisheries resources forced the fleets in search for new seafood supplies well beyond their domestic waters. The acquisition of foreign (and high seas) seafood by these markets is conducted through two channels: by dispatching distant water fishing fleets that directly exploit foreign stocks; and by importing catch landed elsewhere by local fleets. The results also demonstrate that each of the three major markets occupies a zone of influence within which it is dominant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are US exports different from China's exports? If so, how? This article attempts to answer this question, using product-level manufacturing import data from Japan. To make the comparison clear, this article also examines exports from the EU. The results indicate that more than 85 per cent and 83 per cent of products exported by the US and the EU, respectively, to Japan are also commonly exported from China. Both the US and the EU export products are priced higher than China's export products, regardless of industries. This result suggests that quality differences matter in explaining the high overlap of China's export products with US and EU export products. In some industries, however, the price differences of US and EU exports relative to China's exports are relatively small. This result implies that either Chinese firms are upgrading the quality of their products, or US and EU firms are improving their efficiencies such that they can compete with Chinese firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We estimate a gravity model of Japanese and US exports of used automobiles that incorporates an original, ordered measure of protection in global, used automobile markets. The model confirms that, overall, protection by our measure is suppress-ive and often statistically significant and that what we term ‘Grubel income effects’ are present. However, Japanese export behavior appears to differ in some important respects from that of the USA, with distance and protection levels being less significant and left-hand side driving patterns being a critical explanatory variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]