Japan's Household Savings Rate


Book Description

This paper develops and tests a model of Japan’s household savings rate, based on the life-cycle hypothesis that the primary motive for savings is provision for retirement. The paper shows that Japan’s high household savings rate in recent decades reflects the positive influence of rapid economic growth, leading to a prolonged retirement period through the wealth and life-expectancy effects of an income change, which has initially outweighed the negative combined influence of improvements in public pension benefits and the aging of the population. It projects that the savings rate will decline substantially in coming decades as the negative influence accelerates.




Understanding Saving


Book Description

Analysis of consumption and saving decisions by households has always been one of the most active areas of research in economics--and with good reason. Private consumption is the most important component of aggregate demand in a capitalist economy, and explaining consumption is the key element in most macroeconomic forecasting models. To evaluate the effect of government policies invariably requires the knowledge of how they change parameters relevant for household decision making. Understanding Saving collects eleven papers by economist Fumio Hayashi, along with two previously unpublished chapters, for a total of thirteen chapters. The monograph, which brings together Hayashi's empirical research on saving, is divided into three sections. Part I, "Liquidity Constraints", contains five studies that test the well-known implication of the Life Cycle-Permanent Income hypothesis that households shield consumption from income fluctuations. Part II, "Risk-Sharing and Altruism", contains three papers that examine the interactions between related and unrelated households predicted by the hypothesis for the US and Japanese households. The three papers in Part III, "Japanese Saving Behavior", present the author's explanation of the high saving rate in postwar Japan.




The Japanese Economy


Book Description




Life-Cycle Savings and Public Policy


Book Description

Life-Cycle Savings and Public Policy examines data on many households from a number of different countries. The hope is that through these observations we can learn about the ways policies affect savings, and that other differences among savers can be controlled for, instead of being blamed on cultural differences. This book features a consistent framework among chapters. It reaches a harmony between measurement and analysis to compare accurately the resulting data and statistics. It provides econometric methodology to reveal the way policies affect savings. The book features data on household savings in Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the U.K., and the U.S. This book is recommended reading for anyone interested in saving, social insurance policy, or capital formation. - Features a consistent framework among chapters - Reaches a harmony between measurement and analysis to compare accurately the resulting data and statistics - Provides econometric methodology to reveal the way policies affect savings




International Comparisons of Household Saving


Book Description

Governments and corporations may chip in, but around the world houshold saving is the biggest factor in national saving. To better understand why saving rates differ across countries, this volume provides the most up-to-date analyses of patterns of household saving behavior in Canada, Italy, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Each of the six chapters examines micro data sets of household saving within a particular country and summarizes statistics on patterns of saving by age, income, and other demographic factors. The authors provide age-earning profiles and analyses of the accumulation of wealth over the lifetime in a clear way that allows quick comparisons between earning, consumption, and saving in the six countries. Designed as a companion to Public Policies and Household Saving (1994), which addresses saving policies in the G-7 nations, this volume offers detailed descriptions of saving behavior in all G-7 nations except France.




Japan Report


Book Description




Growth, Unemployment, Distribution and Government


Book Description

The purpose of this book is to set out in a comprehensive, but succinct manner, the key points surrounding four economic issues that generate, today, much discussion and debate. These are the issues of growth, unemployment, distribution and government. It is aimed at an audience that is sufficiently interested in economic issues to read a book that sets out these issues clearly, comprehensively and above all, seriously. This has implications for both the style and the content of the book. Clarity requires that the arguments be presented coherently, without resort to jargon. Comprehensiveness requires a wide perspective embracing theoretical, empirical and policy matters. Lastly, seriousness requires that the most up-to-date thinking on economic matters is presented in digestible form, but without violence to the integrity of the original arguments. Achieving this trinity of objectives has been the primary aim of this book.




Japan's Economic Recovery


Book Description

The contributors to this book, from the US and Japan, explore the main issues involved in the international trade, foreign direct investment, and macro/financial relations of the United States and Japan and provide guidance to policy makers for measures to help overcome Japan's economic stagnation since the early 1990s. The book is divided into three parts. Part I contains an empirical analysis of trade diversion under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a theoretical analysis of time in determining the structure and effects of trade with an application to Japan, and an empirical analysis of Japan's changing import behavior. Part II is focused on foreign direct investment (FDI), trade, and the behavior and structure of Japanese firms. Part III deals with macro/financial issues of current interest and importance in Japan. The analytical focus of the chapters is intended to enhance the understanding of the issues addressed and to provide some guidance to policymakers in the design of measures that will improve economic efficiency and welfare and help to overcome the economic stagnation that Japan has experienced in the past decade or more.




The Demographic Challenge: A Handbook about Japan


Book Description

This Handbook explores the challenges demographic change poses to today’s Japan. The first part provides the fundamental data involved, and the subsequent two parts address the social and cultural aspects of Japan’s demographic change. Parts four and five are dedicated to the political, economic and social security aspects of demographic change. The Handbook brings together a group of international scholars of various disciplinary backgrounds to take issue with the world’s fastest demographic transition. Topics include the dynamics of gender roles, images of age, policy formation, labour market structures, pension system, living arrangements, ethical values, and many more. Against the background of Japan’s demographic change, the latest developments in these fields are being introduced, and whenever appropriate set into a context of historical and/or international comparison. This Handbook is the first comprehensive publication in English on Japan’s demographic change. Contributors include: Makoto Atoh, Hans Dieter Ölschleger, Ryuichi Kaneko, Ralph Lützeler, Shigemi Kono, Matthias Koch, Sepp Linhart, Takeo Ogawa, Chikako Usui, Leng Leng Thang, Susan (Orpett) Long, Sawako Shirahase, Toshiko Himeoka, James Raymo, Miho Iwasawa, Akiko S Oishi, Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu, David Blake Willis, Susanne Formanek, Mayumi Sekizawa, Christopher S Thompson, John W Traphagan, Kenji Ishii, Craig Martin, Peter Backhaus, Fumio Inoue, Lisette Gebhardt, Nobuko Shiraishi, Sumiko Iwao, Roger Goodman, Takanori Shintani, Fumihiko Satofuka, Carolin Funck, John Clammer, Wolfram Manzenreiter, Leonard Schoppa, John C Campbell, Paul Talcott, David Potter, Robert Pekkanen, Yutaka Tsujinaka, Akihiro Ogawa, Susanne Kreitz-Sandberg, Liv Coleman, Glenda S Roberts, Thomas Feldhoff, Patricia Maclachlan, Naohiro Ogawa, Akihiro Kawase, Seiritsu Ogura, Volker Elis, Charles Yuji Horioka, Fumio Ohtake, Hisashi Fukawa, Naohiro Yashiro, Hendrik Meyer-Ohle, Karen A Shire, Harald Conrad, Hidehiko Sekizawa, Andreas Moerke, Ito Peng, Naoki Ikegami, Makoto Arai, Tetsuo Fukawa, Takashi Oshio, Noriyuki Takayama, and Tomoyuki Kubo.




Public Policies and Household Saving


Book Description

The declining U.S. national saving rate has prompted economists and policymakers to ask, should the federal government encourage household saving, and if so, through which policies? In order to better understand saving programs, this volume provides a systematic and detailed description of saving policies in the G-7 industrialized nations: the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Each of the seven chapters focuses on one country and addresses a core set of topics: types of accumulated household savings and debt; tax policies toward capital income; saving in the form of public and private pensions, including Social Security and similar programs; saving programs that receive special tax treatment; and saving through insurance. This detailed summary of the saving incentives of the G-7 nations will be an invaluable reference for policymakers and academics interested in personal saving behavior.