Restructuring the Economy of the 21st Century in Japan and Germany
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Restructuring the Economy of the 21st Century in Japan and Germany
Editors: Schober, Franz | Kishida, Tamiki | Arayama, Yuko
Schriften zu Regional- und Verkehrsproblemen in Industrie- und Entwicklungsländern, Vol. 65
(1999)
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This book contains the revised and updated versions of twelve papers which were presented at the 17th joint seminar of the faculties of economics of the Universities of Nagoya and Freiburg. The seminar took place in 1997 in Nagoya and marked the 25th anniversary of the cooperation between both faculties. The subjects of the book concentrate on long-term economic and business issues common to Japan and Germany on the turn of our century.Firstly, both countries experience continuing and interrelated problems in the labor market, budget deficits, demographic changes and the future of the social security system. Secondly, globalization, technical progress and shift of social values lead to structural changes of the economy and its institutions, particularly to deregulations and network economies. As a consequence, new ways of cooperation between firms, customers and suppliers will be established. Thirdly, the network economy changes also the inner structure and management of the companies in both countries including new organizational patterns such as the holding company or the virtual enterprise, the tight cooperation of small and medium-sized companies, human resource management and compensation.Although the broad issues in both countries - as in other mature economies - are essentially the same, the details under the surface are different and therefore ask for different solutions. The identification of these similarities and differences by theoretical and empirical methods constituted a key objective of the seminar, as well as of previous seminars.
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preface of the Series Editors | 7 | ||
| Table of Contents | 9 | ||
| Theodor Dams: Twenty-Five Years of Cooperation between Nagoya and Freiburg | 11 | ||
| Masatsugu Tsuji: Envisioning the Japanese Economic System in the 21st Century in Relation to Economies of Network | 15 | ||
| Introduction | 15 | ||
| A. Economies of Network | 16 | ||
| I. Definition | 16 | ||
| II. Contents and Basis of Economies of Network | 17 | ||
| III. Economies of Scale and Economies of Scope | 18 | ||
| IV. Industrial Transformation of the Japanese Economy | 20 | ||
| B. Japanese System I - Employment System | 20 | ||
| I. Characteristics of the Japanese Employment System | 20 | ||
| II. Economic Foundations of the Japanese Employment System | 22 | ||
| C. Japanese System II - Industrial Group | 23 | ||
| I. Horizontal Group: Zaibatsu Group | 24 | ||
| II. Vertical Group: Hierarchical Production Structure | 24 | ||
| III. Economic Basis of the Hierarchical Production System | 27 | ||
| D. Economies of Network and the Japanese System | 28 | ||
| I. Traditional Information Interchange inside Japanese Firms | 29 | ||
| II. LAN in Japanese Firms | 29 | ||
| III. Transformation of the U.S. Economy and Economies of Network | 30 | ||
| E. Concluding Remarks: The Japanese System in the 21st Century | 32 | ||
| I. Transformation of the Japanese Economy and the Japanese System | 33 | ||
| II. Possible Reform of the Japanese System | 33 | ||
| Acknowledgment | 35 | ||
| References | 35 | ||
| Jürgen Jerger: Nominal Wage Setting and Employment at the Aggregate and Sectoral Level | 37 | ||
| A. Introduction | 37 | ||
| Β. Nominal Wages and Employment | 38 | ||
| I. Purchasing Power vs. Cost Aspect of Wages | 38 | ||
| II. Nominal Wage Setting Rules | 39 | ||
| C. Sectoral and Aggregate Effects of Nominal Wage Variations | 41 | ||
| I. Some Preliminary Remarks | 41 | ||
| II. The Sectoral Level | 42 | ||
| III. The Aggregate Level | 45 | ||
| IV. Results | 46 | ||
| D. An Empirical Analysis of Sectoral Data for Germany | 49 | ||
| E. Conclusions | 60 | ||
| References | 61 | ||
| Alexander Spermann: Job Creation in the Low-Wage Sector - The Role of Employment Subsidies | 65 | ||
| A. Introduction | 65 | ||
| B. The Analytical Framework | 66 | ||
| C. Employment Subsidies in a One-Sector Model of Equilibrium Unemployment | 67 | ||
| D. Discussion of the Standard Result | 69 | ||
| E. General Problems of Employment Subsidies | 73 | ||
| F. Conclusions | 74 | ||
| References | 74 | ||
| Hiroyasu Uemura / Akinori Isogai / Akira Ebizuka: The Hierarchical Market-Firm Nexus and the Institutional Analysis of the Recent Japanese Economy | 77 | ||
| Introduction | 77 | ||
| A. Institutional Analysis of "the Hierarchical Market-Firm Nexus" | 78 | ||
| I. Institutional Analysis and the Régulation Approach | 78 | ||
| II. "Wage-Labour Nexus" and "Market-Firm Nexus" | 79 | ||
| III. The Hypothesis of "the Hierarchical Market-Firm Nexus" | 80 | ||
| B. "The Hierarchical Market-Firm Nexus" as a Set of Coordinating Mechanisms in Economic Dynamics | 84 | ||
| I. Structures of the Incentive Mechanism | 84 | ||
| II. Cost of Job Change and "Institutionalized Job-Loss Costs" | 86 | ||
| III. Flexibility of Wages and Employment | 88 | ||
| IV. Structural Compatibility and Productivity-Enhancing Mechanism in the "Hierarchical Market-Firm Nexus" | 92 | ||
| V. Socio-economic Reproduction of the Hierarchical Market-Firm Nexus | 94 | ||
| C. Japanese Economy in the 1990s and Structural Shifts in the Hierarchical Market-Firm Nexus | 96 | ||
| I. The Hierarchical Market-Firm Nexus and the Demand Regime | 96 | ||
| II. The "Heisei Recession" Compared with Previous Ones | 101 | ||
| III. The Hierarchical Market-Firm Nexus in the "Heisei Recession" | 109 | ||
| D. Concluding Remarks | 114 | ||
| References | 116 | ||
| Tadashi Yagi: The Roles of the Public Sector Toward the 21st Century | 121 | ||
| A. Introduction | 121 | ||
| B. Public Policies for the Aging Society | 121 | ||
| I. The Optimal Long-term Care System | 121 | ||
| II. Advancement of Women in the Society | 125 | ||
| C. The Land Problem in Japan and the Tax System | 126 | ||
| I. The Japanese Tax System for Land Holding | 127 | ||
| II. Inequality between Income with and without Imputed Rent | 128 | ||
| III. The Effect of Taxation on Income Redistribution | 128 | ||
| IV. Tax Reform to the Comprehensive Income Tax System | 129 | ||
| D. Building of Information Infrastructure | 131 | ||
| I. Model | 132 | ||
| II. Optimal Public Investment Path | 133 | ||
| III. Public Investment in the Optical Information Highway | 136 | ||
| Appendix | 137 | ||
| References | 141 | ||
| Akihiro Noguchi: Accounting for Stock Options in Japan | 143 | ||
| A. Introduction | 143 | ||
| Β. Plans by Issuing Stock Purchase Warrants With Debt | 144 | ||
| C. Plans by the New Business Promotion Act (Before Amendment in 1997) | 146 | ||
| D. Plans by Using Rights to Purchase Treasury Stocks | 147 | ||
| E. Plans by Issuing Stock Purchase Rights | 148 | ||
| F. Plans Other Than Above | 148 | ||
| I. Plans by the Principal Stockholder | 149 | ||
| II. Plans by the Parent Company | 149 | ||
| G. Summary | 150 | ||
| References | 150 | ||
| Hiroshi Tsukada: Budget Deficits in Japan | 153 | ||
| A. Introduction | 153 | ||
| B. Historical Trends in Public Finance and Current Fiscal Situation | 153 | ||
| I. Situation until First Oil Crisis in 1973 | 153 | ||
| II. Fiscal Deficits in 1970s | 154 | ||
| III. Efforts to Reduce Fiscal Deficits in the 1980s | 155 | ||
| IV. The Bubble Economy | 155 | ||
| V. Current Fiscal Situation | 157 | ||
| C. Conclusion | 158 | ||
| Appendix | 159 | ||
| Franz Schober: Information Technology and Organizational Change. How Stable is the Virtual Enterprise? | 165 | ||
| A. Introduction | 165 | ||
| B. Current Organizational Trends and the Role of IT | 167 | ||
| I. Generic Coordination Mechanisms | 167 | ||
| II. Intra-Organizational Coordination and IT | 168 | ||
| III. Interorganizational Coordination and IT | 169 | ||
| IV. Market Coordination and IT | 170 | ||
| C. An Economic Analysis of the Virtual Enterprise | 171 | ||
| I. Formal Analysis | 171 | ||
| II. Numerical Examples | 174 | ||
| III. Switching Costs | 177 | ||
| D. Summary and Conclusions | 179 | ||
| References | 179 | ||
| Günter Müller / Holger Eggs / Jürgen Englert: Restructuring of Co-operation for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises by Electronic Networks | 181 | ||
| A. Introduction | 181 | ||
| B. Background of the Study | 181 | ||
| C. The Empirical Study | 184 | ||
| I. Formulation of the Problem | 184 | ||
| II. Design of the Study | 185 | ||
| III. Case Studies | 187 | ||
| D. Crucial Factors for Restructuring SMEs | 188 | ||
| I. IT Aspects of Networking | 188 | ||
| II. Organisational Aspects of Networking | 189 | ||
| III. Cultural and Institutional Aspects of Networking | 193 | ||
| E. Extensions of the Study | 194 | ||
| References | 194 | ||
| Takeshi Yoshida: Multiplication of Measurement and Management of Intellectual Capital in Firms | 197 | ||
| A. Introduction | 197 | ||
| B. Multiplication of Measurement and Management of Intellectual Capital | 198 | ||
| I. Measurement of Knowledge: Visualizing Intellectual Capital | 200 | ||
| II. Management of Knowledge | 202 | ||
| 1. Visualizing Knowledge Management (KM) Process | 202 | ||
| 2. Process Perspectives on KM | 202 | ||
| 3. New Direction of KM - Frontline or Bottom-up Knowledge Creation | 203 | ||
| C. Concluding Remark: Multiplication of Management (KM) and Measurement (IC): Wise Utilization of Knowledge | 204 | ||
| References | 205 | ||
| Tamiki Kishida: The Holding Company - An Analysis of Its Organizational Form | 207 | ||
| A. Introduction | 207 | ||
| Β. Merits and Demerits of the Holding Company | 208 | ||
| I. Definition | 208 | ||
| II. Holding Companies Abroad | 209 | ||
| 1. The Holding Company in the USA | 209 | ||
| 2. The Holding Company in Europe | 210 | ||
| 3. Merits of the Holding Company | 211 | ||
| 4. Demerits of the Holding Company | 212 | ||
| C. The Holding Company as an Organizational Form | 215 | ||
| I. Stagewise Developmental Model of Organization and the Holding Company | 215 | ||
| II. Decentralization versus Centralization and the Holding Company | 217 | ||
| III. Strategy of Environmental Management and the Holding Company | 218 | ||
| D. Concluding Remarks | 220 | ||
| References | 223 | ||
| Appendix: List of the Publications of Previous Joint Nagoya/Freiburg Seminars | 225 | ||
| Contributors and Editors | 227 |