The Workshops for Economis Theories and Contemporary CapotalismThe Research Group on the Korean Automobile IndustryThe Workshop on Modern Business OrganizationMacroeconomics WorkshopMicroeconomics WorkshopThe Workshops for Economis Theories and Contemporary CapotalismThe Research Group on the Korean Automobile IndustryThe Workshop on Modern Business OrganizationMacroeconomics WorkshopMicroeconomics Workshop
This workshop started from 17th June 1995. It aims at promoting cooperative research works on the structural changes in contemporary capitalism in the light of recent theories of political economy. It also intends to push forward researches in both basic and intermediary theories in political economy in view of recent capitalism.
One of the focal points in the structural changes in capitalist economy since the 1970s has been the impact of micro-electronics (ME) information technologies. ME technologies were broadly incorporated in workplace under the pressure of protracted economic difficulties, and reintensified competition among capitalist firms in many ways. The monetary and financial system has also been widely restructured. All these changes have revitalized both globally and domestically the competitive market economy, but simultaneously increased its instability. The restructuring of capitalism through the information revolution may thus be causing a historical reversal over a century for a more competitive free market. The basic theory of capitalism would then reinforce its relevancy as a frame of reference to many aspects of contemporary economic situations.
The members of the workshop have more or less in common these hypothetical perspectives as well as an academic background in the Marx-Uno theories. The number of members is now sixteen. The workshop had six discussion meetings in a common research room in our faculty building on the reports as follows;
1. 17th June 1995: Tetsuji Kawamura (The Teikyo University), "Pax-Americana and the Theories of Contemporary Capitalism".
2. 29th August 1995: Makoto Itoh (The University of Tokyo), "Capitalism in a Backward Flow and the Methodology for the Theory of Contemporary Capitalism".
3. 22nd December 1995: Makoto Noguchi (The Bunkyo University), "On Counterattacks by Marx".
4. 23rd March 1996: Atsusi Shimizu (The Musashi University), "Marx's Theory of Money in the History of Economic Theories".
Makoto Nishibe (The Hokkaido University), "The Multi-Levels Adjustment Mechanism of a Market Economy".
5. 13th July 1996: Hideaki Tanaka (The Shiga University), "Uncertainty in the Process of Circulation and the Market System".
6. 24th September 1996: Makoto Nishibe (The Hokkaido University), "Three Stages of Internalization of Labour-Power".
Michiaki Obata (The University of Tokyo), "Co-operation and the Division of Labour".
Through these meetings, an idea to work out a series of books on economic theories and contemporary capitalism has grown. A publisher, Ochanomizu-shobo is interested in the idea, and basically agrees to publish three books in a series. Tentatively the common title of the series will be "Marxian Political Economy I, II, III", and the titles of each volume will be as follows;
I. Instability of Contemporary Capitalism.
II. Information Technologies and Economic Instability.
III. Economic Fluctuations and Capitalism
We are going to make up more substantial plans for these volumes, including the concrete plans of chapters, toward the end of this year. Our cooperative research interest in this workshop will thus be more concentrated in jointly writing these books. The manuscripts will probably be ready within 1997 so as to be published in 1998.
The next meeting of the workshop is scheduled on 20th December 1996.
(September 1996)
The promoters of the group are Professor Takahiro Fujimoto of the University of Tokyo and Ryuji Fukuda of Sogo Kyoiku Kikaku Inc., and the conference place is at the Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo. The number of the members is thirty-six on July 15, 1996, and they are mainly researchers in private research institutes, managers of Japanese and Korean automobile producers, and foreign students from Korea. The clerical office is Fujimoto Research Room in the University of Tokyo, and its secretaries are Kiyoung Ko and Jaewhon Oh who are doctoral program students in the Division of Economics of the University.
The research meeting is held, on principle, once in every two-month. The meeting time is from six to nine o'clock on each meeting day. In the meeting, one of the group members gives a presentation, followed by members' discussion on the issues raised from it. The language of the meeting is principally Japanese, and if needed, interpretation into Korean or English is provided by volunteers.
There have been fourteen research meetings since the first meeting held on July 29, 1994. The main topics discussed so far were the marketing and supplier systems of the Korean automobile industry, the globalization of
the Korean automobile producers, the production management including the quality management, the government policies for the industry development, and so on. In many cases of those discussions, the experiences of the Japanese automobile industry were contrasted to the current situation of the Korean automobile industry.
In addition to topics on the automobile industries, general issues on the Japanese and Korean economies, e.g., the inter-relationship between the Japanese and Korean economies, were also discussed occasionally.
The purpose of the workshop is to promote communication among researchers in the area of corporate or business strategy and organizational implementation. The workshop accomplishes this purpose through providing those researchers with a communication place for presenting and discussing their research works. Although formal research conferences play the role of being such a place, this small-group meeting is particularly important for the research activities in their developing stage. Through participating in the workshop, researchers exchange their ideas and develop mutual understanding of the research in the area, which will eventually contribute to the enhancement of our knowledge on business organizations.
The workshop was organized in June 1995 by faculty members in the field of Markets and Corporations (Business Administration), Faculty of Economics, the University of Tokyo. Those are Professor E. Daito, Professor Y. Umezawa, Professor K. Wada, Professor H. Katahira, Associate Professor T. Fujimoto, Associate Professor N. Takahashi, and Associate Professor J. Shintaku. Other members of the workshop are graduate students and alumni of the faculty and researchers outside the university who are interested in business organizations. The total number of the members is about thirty at present. The workshop is held twice a month in average during a semester. In principle, the time is from four to six o'clock on Wednesday, and the place is the Audio-Visual Room or Co-Research Room No.1 of the faculty.
In each session of the workshop, one or several members present their own research work n the first half of the time, and then others participate in the discussion in the left time. Members are diverse in their approach to and interest in the strategic or organizational issues of business organizations. Their empirical studies cover firms in various industries: the automobile industry, the electric and electronic industries, the communication industry, the synthetic fiber industry, the chemical industry, the pharmaceutical industry, venture businesses, and so on. The followings are examples of the topics presented in the workshop in 1996.
Production Technology Evolution and Organization in the Automobile Industry.
Vertical Division Systems in the Synthetic Fiber Industry.
The Improvement of Organizational Learning through Ideal Confirmation.
Cooperative R&D Activities in the Pharmaceutical Industry.
Effective R&D Management in the Chemical Industry.
Small and Medium-Sized Firms as Network Makers.
The Change of Relationship between Corporations and Employees through Communication.
The Competitive Strategy of Firms in the Electric-Communication Industry.
The Strategy Formation and Implementation of Firms in the Chinese Automobile Industry.
Corporate System Evolution and Corporate Strategy in the Modern Chinese Automobile Industry.
Macroeconomics Workshop is usually held on Thursday, from 5pm to 6:30pm (but sometimes on Friday from 4:30pm to 6pm), at the University of Tokyo. In this academic year, Professors Masayuki Ohtaki and Shin-ichi Fukuda organize the workshop. The main body of the workshop consists of invited lectures that represent a broad spectrum of applied and theoretical macroeconomics. The audience at the workshop are usually faculty members and graduate students in the University of Tokyo. The workshop is, however, open to all economists including those who are not affiliated to the University of Tokyo.
In this academic year (from April 1996 to September 1996), we held the following workshops.
(1) Thursday, April 25
Speaker: Taro Akiyama (Yokohama National University), Title: Shumpeter Dynamics.
(2) Friday, May 10
Speaker: Gary Burtless (Brookings Institution, Senior Fellow), Title: Widening U.S. Income Inequality and the Growth in World Trade.
(3) Friday, May 17
Speaker: Karl Shell (Cornell University), Title: Price Level Volatility: A Simple Model of Money Taxes and Sunspots.
(4) Thursday, May 23
Speaker: Kurt W. Tong (University of Tokyo), Title: Household's Saving Rate in Japan.
(5) Thursday, May 30
Speaker: Tokuo Iwaisako (Harvard University), Title: Does International Diversification Really Diversify Risks?
(6) Thursday, June 6
Speaker: Toshiaki Watanabe (Tokyo Metropolitan University), Title: Permanent and Transitory Component Models of Stock Return Volatility.
(7) Thursday, June 13
Speaker: Randall Wright (University of Pennsylvania), Title: A Dynamic Equilibrium Model of Search Bargaining and Money.
(8) Thursday, June 20
Speaker: Masaru Konishi (Tokyo Keizai University), Title: Corporate Governance by Financial Intermediary and Free Cash Flow Hypothesis.
(9) Thursday, June 27
Speaker: Shigeru Wakita (Tokyo Metropolitan University), Title: A Model for Patterns of Industrial Relations.
(10) Thursday, July 4
Speaker: Masaharu Hanasaki (Japan Development Bank), Title: Investment Behavior: International Comparison.
(11) Thursday, July 11
Speaker: Satoru Kawanishi (University of Tokyo), Title: Better Response Dynamics and Multiplicity of Attractors in a Model of Imperfect Competition.
(12) Monday, September 2
Speaker: Kenneth D. West (Univeristy of Wisconsin), Title: Business Fixed Investment and the Recent Business Cycle in Japan. (joint with Nobu Kiyotaki)
This workshop focuses on current research on microeconomics such as game theory, general equilibrium theory, and contract theory. The members are faculty and graduate students who are actively engaged in research in microeconomics. The group meets every Tuesday at 5pm throughout the academic year, with each hour-and-a-half session devoted to the presentation and discussion of a research paper by a member or an invited speaker.
The seminars from April 1996 to July 1996 were as follows:
April 16
Akihiko Matsui (University of Tsukuba), "An Antifolk Theorem for a Class of Asyncronious Repeated Games".
April 23
Manabu Toda (Tokyo Keizai University), "Population Monotonicity and Characterization of Core of Matching Problems".
May 7
Serguey Braguinsky (Yokohama City University), "Microfoundations of Transition Economics".
May 14
Masako Ueda (University of Tokyo and University of Pennsylvania), "Nominal Wage Monotonicity and Non-neutrality of Money".
May 21
Fukunari Kimura (Keio University), "Invisible Trade Barriers and Price Differentials".
May 28
Yoshimasa Shirai (Keio University), "Product Development Cycles".
June 4
Jingang Zhao (Ohio State University), "The Stability and the Formation of Coalition Structures in Normal Form TU Games".
June 11
Jayasri Dutta (University of Cambridge), "The Distribution of Wealth with Imperfect Altruism".
June 18
Hideshi Itoh (Osaka University), "Side Trade and Moral Hazard in Agency Contracts".
June 25
Naohiro Yashiro (Sophia University), "Korei-ka no Keizai-teki Eikyo(On the Economic Problems of Aging Societies)". (in Japanese)
July 3
Hiroyuki Chuma (Hitotsubashi University), "Structural Changes and the State of Labor Market in Japan".
July 9
Hideo Konishi (Southern Methodist University), "Hub Cities: City Formation without Economies of Scale".