Musashi University

About: Musashi University is a education organization based out in Tokyo, Japan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Supply chain & Frugivore. The organization has 125 authors who have published 328 publications receiving 3844 citations.

Japan's Fiscal System: An International Comparison

Abstract: The need for international comparative studies of national systems of public finance has increased immeasurably, especially since the establishment of international organizations such as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund, following World War II, and because of the necessity for comparing, internationally, military expenditures, aid to developing nations, and tax burdens. Concomitantly the development of national economic accounting techniques for internationational comparative analyses seems to have significantly improved. However, such analyses are not necessarily securely grounded in theory.

Behavioral Study of Demand Response: Web-Based Survey, Field Experiment, and Laboratory Experiment

Abstract: This chapter analyzes customers’ electricity conservation behavior when demand response is called for. Behavioral economics provides very useful insights to account for human behavioral anomalies such as status quo bias, loss aversion, overconfidence, moral cost, and default bias. The chapter is composed of five sections. The second section investigates a Web-based survey of residential electricity plan choice. The third section investigates a field experiment on residential electricity plan choice. The fourth section investigates a laboratory experiment on residential energy conservation. The fifth section investigates a field experiment on building electricity conservation.

The Welfare Effects of Environmental Taxation and Subsidization on Renewable Energy Sources in an Oligopolistic Electricity Market

Abstract: This chapter investigates the impact of environmental taxation and subsidization on non-polluting renewable power plants. Their dispatch is prioritized in a wholesale electricity market in which oligopolistic firms produce electricity both from polluting fossil-fuel inputs and non-polluting renewable energy sources, and competitive fringe firms produce electricity only from non-polluting renewable energy sources. To examine the welfare impacts of levying a tax on emissions of pollutants from fossil-fuel power plants and granting subsidies to renewable power plants, this chapter develops a three-stage model with the endogenous capacity of renewable power plants, forward contracts on electricity, and the operation of fossil-fuel power plants. An emission tax imposed on fossil-fuel use is expected to discourage firms from operating their fossil-fuel power plants, thereby promoting substitution of renewable energy sources for fossil-fuel inputs. A subsidy provided to firms building renewable power plants is expected to reduce the setup costs, thereby promoting the use of renewable energy sources. Using simulations, this chapter makes a welfare comparison between an emission tax on fossil-fuel use and a subsidy for renewable power plants and analyzes how these environmental policies affect a wholesale electricity market.

Hidden persistent disasters and asset prices

Abstract: This study analyzes the effects of agents’ learning about hidden persistent economic disasters on asset prices. In this study, it is assumed that aggregate consumption follows a hidden Markov regime-switching process and a representative agent infers the current regime, normal regime, or disaster regime, sequentially from the realized path of the past consumption process. In this setting, the fluctuation in the agent’s posterior probabilities of the disaster regime augments the volatility of equity returns. By utilizing the stochastic differential utility, this study demonstrates that the current model can help resolve many asset pricing puzzles including the equity premium puzzle, equity volatility puzzle, and risk-free rate puzzle simultaneously. Further, the current model predicts the counter-cyclical pattern in the equity premium and equity-return volatility on the normal regime, although asset returns are negative and highly volatile during disasters. The study also demonstrates that, if the agent’s preferences are restricted to time-additive power utility, the consideration of hidden persistent disasters deepens the asset pricing puzzles.

Comparison of the Value Relevance Between the Purchase and Rental Treatment of Leases

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to compare the earnings value relevance between rental and purchase treatments, i.e. to examine whether the capitalization of leases is appropriate in terms of income measurement rather than as recognition on balance sheets. I have chosen to examine a Japanese sample because earnings information in Japan is available both when leases are treated as rentals and when leases are treated as purchases. The results show that the value relevance of earnings-via purchase treatment rather than by rental treatment is significantly higher only in 2003. This might imply that investors utilize footnote information only in particular situations. Although we need further examination of why investors evaluate leases differently only in 2003 and it is important to expand this implication carefully in order to evaluate the relevance of capitalization of operating leases, this paper offers serious implications for the FASB/IASB project.