CIRJE Conferences 2007

COE Conference "Frontiers of Microeconometrics - Theory and Applications"

  • Organizers:
    COE/RES, The 21st Century COE Program,
    "Normative Evaluation and Social Choice of COntemporary Economic Systems", Hitotsubashi University
    CEMANO, The 21st Century COE Program,
    "Center for the Research on Relationship between Market Economy and Non-Market Institutions", University of Tokyo
    The 21st Century COE Program,
    "Behavioral Macrodynamics based on Surveys and Experiments", Osaka University
    The 21st Century COE Program,
    "Interfaces for Advances Economic Analysis", Kyoto University
    The Kikawada Foundation
    CIRJE, The Center for International Research on the Japanese Economy
  • March 15 and 16, 2008
  • Venue: Lecture Hall No. 2, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo
  • Conference Program

In order to offer Japanese micro-econometricians opportunities to discuss directly with frontier researchers in micro-econometricians we have organized a conference "Frontiers of Microeconometrics - Theory and Applications". We have written to about 70 econometricians soliciting young micro-econometricians worthy of invitation. From the compiled list of names we have invited the following 6 scholars (along with papers they choose to present): Ken Chay (Brown University) "Mortality and the Baseball Hall of Fame: An Investigation into the Role of Status in Life Expectancy", Victor Chernozhukov (MIT) "Quantile and Probability Curves without Crossing", Han Hong (Stanford University) "Identification and Estimation of a Discrete Game of Complete Information", Pat Kline (Yale University ) "Do Local Economic Development Programs Work? Evidence from the Federal Empowerment Zone Program", Erik Plug (University of Amsterdam) "Estimating Intergenerational Schooling Effects: A Comparison of Methods", Elie Tamer (Northwestern University) "The Identification Power of Equilibrium in Simple Games" The conference is well attended by over 90 people from all over Japan including Hokkaido, Shikoku, Kyushu and also from Hong Kong.

COE Conference "Wealth and Poverty in Economic Development"

  • Organizers:
    CEMANO, "Center for the Research on Relationship between Market Economy and Non-Market Institutions"
    (Ministry of Education COE Program Grant)
    CIRJE, The Center for International Research on the Japanese Economy
  • December 8 and 9, 2007
  • Venue: Lecture Hall No.3 on the 3rd floor of the Economics Research Building, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo
  • Conference Program

After the opening remarks by Professor Iwai, the following presentations were given at the first session of the conference, chaired by Katsuhito Iwai:
Mariano Bosch (University of Alicante), "Cyclical Informality and Unemployment" (with Julen Esteban-Pretel)
Joe Chen (University of Tokyo), "How is suicide different in Japan?" (with Yun Jeong Choi and Yasuyuki Sawada)
Dean Karlan (Yale University), "Long Term Evidence from Microcredit Lending Groups with and without Group Liability" (with Xavier Gine)
Yasuyuki Sawada (University of Tokyo), "How is Consumption Smoothed against Income and Asset Shocks induced by an Earthquake: The Case of Yamakoshi Village" (with Hidehiko Ichimura and Satoshi Shimizutani)
Recently, in the filed of development economics, a micro econometric approach using large micro data from developing countries has been progressing rapidly. In this session, two excellent papers in this field, one on microfinance and the other on randomized program evaluation of a water quality improvement project, were presented by two distinguished scholars. The first paper on microfinance was presented by Prof. Jonathan Morduch of New York University. Prof. Morduch shows that, while loans for financing business have been popular as has been discussed in microfinance, especially in the case of Grameed bank of Bangladesh led by Prof. Muhammad Yunus, households in Indonesia often demand potentially for financing devices for broader expenses such as school fees, medical treatment, and home repair. The second paper was presented by Prof. Edward Miguel of University of California, Berkeley. Prof. Miguel, together with his co-authors, found that spring protection leads to large improvements in source water quality using a randomized evaluation technique in Kenya.
In the third session, we invited Professor Mark Rosenzweig (Yale University), Professor Debin Ma (LSE) and Professor Kaoru Sugihara (Kyoto University) to have presentations from the standpoints of development economics and economic history. Professor Rosenzweig presented that persistence of low spatial and marital mobility in rural India is due to the fact that caste networks provide mutual insurance to their members. Professor Ma compiled a long-term dataset of real wages from the eighteenth century to the twentieth century to conclude that the real income in Asia was similar to that in the backward parts of Europe in the eighteenth century, but that since then the real wage in China long stagnated, which resulted in the large income disparity between China and the developed countries. Professor Sugihara presented a view that the experiences of the Asian countries shows that there is an alternative model economic development, i.e. labour-intensive industrialization, other than the capital-intensive model of Western countries. Many participants activetly discussed the papers and exchanged ideas.

The fourth joint conference of Seoul National University and University of Tokyo,
"Issues of Economic Policy: Past and Present

  • Organizers:
    The Institute of Economic Research, Seoul National University
    CIRJE, The Center for International Research on the Japanese Economy
  • November 2, 2007
  • Venue: Meeting Room, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo
  • Conference Program

The conference on "Issues of Economic Policy: Past and Present" was held on November 2, 2007 at University of Tokyo. This was the fourth conference sponsored by of Economic Research in Seoul National University and CIRJE. The conference series, which began in Seoul in 2004, aims to have regular academic interactions in the area of economics and to deepen our understandings of issues of economic policy in Korea, Japan, and other related countries. In this year, we had two sessions at the conference. The first session was on microeconomic empirical studies in Korea and Japan. Two papers; "Changes in Labor Quality among New College Graduates in Korea" (Dae Il Kim, Seoul National University) and "Did U.S. Safeguards Resuscitate Harley-Davidson in the 1980s?" (Hiroshi Ohashi, University of Tokyo), were presented in the first session. Julen Esteban-Pretel (University of Tokyo) and Daeil Kim (Seoul National Univresity) discussed the papers. The second session was on economic development in Korea and Japan. Two papers; "Assessing the Economic Performance of North Korea, 1954-1989: Estimates and Growth Accounting Analysis " (Byung-Yeon Kim, Seoul National University) and "Role of Courts in Economic Development: A Case of Prewar Japan" (Tetsuji Okazaki, University of Tokyo), were presented in the second session. Juro Teranishi (Nihon University) and R. Anton Braun (University of Tokyo) discussed the papers. Kwang-Ha Kang (Seoul National University) chaired the second session. We had fruitful discussions on past and present issues of economic policy in Korea and Japan at the conference.

Advances in Development Economics The 30th Anniversary of Yotopoulos and Nugent
"Economics of Development: Empirical Investigations"

  • Organizer: Yasuyuki Sawada
  • August 8, 2007
  • Venue: Meeting Room, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo
  • Conference Program

In the last three decades, there has been remarkable progress in the field of development economics, particularly in microeconometric and empirical macroeconomic approaches. One of the roots of this progress can be traced back to the celebrated book by Pan A. Yotopoulos and Jeffrey B. Nugent: "Economics of Development: Empirical Investigations," published in 1976. The work blazed a new "empirical trail" in development economics. Jointly with the COE program, "Research Center for the Relationship between Market Economy and Non-market Institutions," this conference was held on August 8, 2008, in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the publication of the book. Paper presenters (commentators) were Pan A. Yotopoulos (Yasuyuki Sawada), Keijiro Otsuka (Yasuyuki Todo), Nobu Fuwa (Tomomi Tanaka), and Jeffrey B. Nugent and Tomoya Matsumoto (Takashi Yamano). We had very lively discussions on a wide variety of issues in economic development, which was followed by congratulatory addresses by Professors Yoshimi Kuroda and Yasuhiko Torii.

Tokyo Workshop on Spatial Economics

  • Organizers:
    Takatoshi Tabuchi, Yoshitsugu Kanemoto, and Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano
  • June 30 and July 1, 2007
  • Venue: Lecture Hall No.3 on the 3rd floor of the Economics Research Building, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo
  • Conference Program

Tokyo Workshop on Spatial Economics was held at the University of Tokyo on June 30th and July 1st in 2007. There were eight presentations on spatial economics, which includes new economic geography, new trade theory, and urban economics. William Strange (Toronto) presented the allocation of skills across cities and estimates the impact of urban agglomeration on the hedonic prices of worker skills. Kristian Behrens (CORE) showed how Canada-U.S. border effects are reduced if one correctly controls for theory-based spatial interdependence across trade flows. On the other hand, Ottaviano (Bologna) showed that the border impediments to trade have significant effects on firm productivity by introducing an NEG model of heterogeneous firms. Marcus Berliant (Washington) showed that asymmetric information in the labor market drives agglomeration of workers sorted by skill. Richard Arnott (Boston) develops a model of downtown parking in auto city, and showed that raising curbside parking fees leads to efficiency gains. Frederic Robert-Nicoud (LSE) presented a simple model of offshoring which is viewed as shadow migration, and reformulated four classic HO theorems. Michael Pfluger (Passau) presented an extended model of NEG, and explained that long-distance commuting and FDI have increased. Giovanni Peri (UC Davis) showed that immigrants positively affect wages and house values in U.S. cities due to their heterogeneity. A variety of knowledge and new ideas were exchanged through active discussions by the participants of the Workshop.