Productivity of inputs is an important determinant of the competitiveness of firms in national and international markets. Productivity growth arises from deliberate decisions to innovate but the technological opportunities could be such that different inputs would have different rates of growth. Previous literature has mostly concentrated on labor productivity but empirical studies indicate that productivity of capital is also increasing. One of the objectives of this book is to examine the difference or bias in the productivity growth of the two inputs.

In this book, application...

The essays in this volume provide an overview of the causes and proposed remedies for the recurring bouts of trade friction between Japan and the United States.

This book examines the role of United States macroeconomic policy in the large and growing trade imbalance between Japan and the United States. To a substantial extent, it traces the causes of the current dilemma to failed U.S. macroeconomic policies. However, a careful examination of Japan's role in the bilateral trade imbalance reveals that Japan has exacerbated the problem in a variety of ways. Policy analyses, as well as econometric forecasts of the U.S. macroeconomy, are included.

This book examines the role of United States macroeconomic policy in the large and growing trade imbalance between Japan and the United States. To a substantial extent, it traces the causes of the current dilemma to failed U.S. macroeconomic policies. However, a careful examination of Japan's role in the bilateral trade imbalance reveals that Japan has exacerbated the problem in a variety of ways. Policy analyses, as well as econometric forecasts of the U.S. macroeconomy, are included.

The deregulation of financial markets in various nations in the 1980s brought about not only a qualitative change in their operation but also a greater integration among these markets. These changes enabled the free flow of financial resources across borders, and private and public institutions in each economy now have the ability to draw on the strengths of foreign markets to meet their individual needs. But many observers in Japan, Europe, North America and elsewhere fear that the new freedom has contributed to a greater instability in individual markets and the transmission of these swings...

Symmetry and Economic Invariance: An Introduction explores how symmetry and invariance of economic models can provide insights into their properties. While the professional economist is nowadays adept at many of the mathematical techniques used in static and dynamic optimization models, group theory is still not among his or her repertoire of tools. The authors aim to show that group theoretic methods form a natural extension of the techniques commonly used in economics and that they can be easily mastered.

Modem geometric methods combine the intuitiveness of spatial visualization with the rigor of analytical derivation. Classical analysis is shown to provide a foundation for the study of geometry while geometrical ideas lead to analytical concepts of intrinsic beauty. Arching over many subdisciplines of mathematics and branching out in applications to every quantitative science, these methods are, notes the Russian mathematician A.T. Fomenko, in tune with the Renais sance traditions. Economists and finance theorists are already familiar with some aspects of this synthetic tradition. Bifurcation...

Organization, Performance and Equity: Perspectives on the Japanese Economy provides an analysis of key components of the Japanese economy and business structures, edited by two leading American-based Japan scholars. The contributions to this book are grouped into four major categories: organizations; income distributions; technological progress; and macro performance.
The first section examines the retail sector, the role of information in evaluating distribution systems, and ownership structures and their effect on welfare, all in the context of the Japanese economy....

The health care sector has become a major component of the contemporary econo mies of Japan and the United States. It absorbs significant proportions of the GDP in both countries and places increasing stress on private, government and corporate budgets. As their income rises, the citizens ofJapan and the United States choose to allocate increasing portions of it on health care services because ofthe direct contri bution of health care services to prolonged life expectancy, reduced morbidity, or other indicators of improved health and well-being. The health care sector is a ma jor source...

Whether in the form of the ongoing automotive wars, books and films such as Michael Crichton's Rising Sun, or George Bush's ill-fated trip to Japan in 1991, frictions between the United States and Japan have been steadily on the rise. Americans are bombarded with images of Japan's fundamental difference; at the same time, voices in Japan call for a Japan That Can Say No. If the guiding principle of the Clinton administration is indeed new values for a new generation, how will this be reflected in U.S.-Japanese relations?

Convinced that no true solution to U.S.-Japanese frictions...