2013 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Estimating and Identifying Sources of Productivity Growth and Their Factor Determinants for the Japanese Economy
| Project/Area Number |
25380273
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Research Institution | Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University |
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Principal Investigator |
キム サンホ 立命館アジア太平洋大学, 国際経営学部, 教授 (20635461)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
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| Keywords | productivity growth / Solow residual / mark-up / returns to scale / factor utilization |
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| Research Abstract |
In FY2013, I have developed a model that eliminates the effects of markup, returns to scale, and capital utilization from the Solow residual to derive an alternative measure for productivity. This model is directly related with my JSPS research in terms of model building, and was first applied to Korean macro dataset to find its practical relevance. The model was promising enough to produce a new measure for total factor productivity derivable from the Solow residual. This research will be published in Contemporary Economic Policy in April 2014. With successful test of the model, I applied it to panel data from the Japanese manufacturing industry to draft out a working paper. This paper was presented at international conferences and will be submitted to an academic journal very shortly.
The current working paper utilizes industrial panel data for the Japanese manufacturing industry to decompose the Solow residual into scale economies, markup effects and technical change. Thus, the paper estimates the influence of scale economies and market competition for the Japanese manufacturing industry, and identifies total factor productivity growth after deleting those factors from the Solow residual. Especially, the paper analyzes how different sectors or industries reacted to cope with varying challenges in influencing their productivity growth since the 1970s. From this, the paper can provide policy suggestions needed to improve competitive efficiency. In addition, the paper allows us to better understand characteristics of the Solow residual in the Japanese manufacturing industry.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
My research purpose in FY2013 was to build an empirical model building on my previous research, and I developed the model as I specified above. In this sense, I think I am progressing towards my research goal as expected. However, I have to admit that it took a while to gain some knowledge about Japanese productivity growth, knowledge that is required for interpreting empirical results and writing a working paper, as I am not familiar with the Japanese economy.
With the newly developed model, I am ready to embark on applying it to Japanese macro dataset in FY2014. Also, I will further develop a new model that can include industry-specific factors of productivity growth together with market environments, which was a main consideration in the model I built in FY2013.
I am planning to write two more working papers in FY2014 to have a total of three working papers including one I made in FY2013. This will complete the working papers that I originally planned in my research proposal.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
My research plan in FY2014 can be specified in three folds: Firstly, I will submit the working paper I wrote in FY2013 to an academic journal for possible publication by the end of May 2014.
Secondly, I will apply the model I developed in FY2013 to a Japanese macro dataset to estimate the productivity growth of the Japanese economy. From this research, I can analyze the impacts of various macroeconomic policies on productivity growth, and this enables me to suggest a policy mix that will boost the productivity growth of the Japanese economy at the macro-level.
Thirdly, I will further develop a new model that can include industry-specific factors of productivity growth together with market environments, which was a main consideration in the model I built in FY2013. Then, I would like to apply this model to panel data from the Japanese manufacturing industry. The industry-specific factors include R&D, IT, human capital, trade and FDI, among others. This will provide us with a more specific picture about factor determinants of productivity growth in the Japanese manufacturing industry.
In FY2015, I would like to concentrate on revising my working papers if I can finish three working papers by FY2014, or try to complete them by early FY2014. Either way, my plan in FY2015 is devoting more of my research efforts to revising them to be published by good academic journals in the future.
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| Expenditure Plans for the Next FY Research Funding |
A small amount remained after completing all the expenditures for the current year.
I plan to use the remaining amount for expenses in the next fiscal year.
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