Japanese Labor Market Institutions under the Depression in the 1990s and the Japanese Culture

这项研究除了《文化、组织和劳动力市场制度--日本制度的经济分析》一书外，还发表了几篇论文。这本书表明，文化强烈地影响着经济效率以及机构和组织的形式。这是经济学中的一个新论断，它源于交易成本、不完全契约、自由裁量权、相互依赖和信任等概念。运用博弈论，本研究表明，在高度信任的文化中，终身雇佣等高工作保障会产生高度的组织效率。本研究还分析了信任在经济中的重要性，并成功地给出了信任的数学和经济学定义。从日常生活中使用的意义出发，将其以最一般的形式表示为基于冯·诺伊曼-摩根斯坦效用函数的概率。进一步，本研究调查了日本资历-工资制度的向上倾斜工资曲线。我开发的生命周期工资模型预测，人口老龄化将使工资状况变得扁平化。本研究进行的实证分析表明，这种情况确实发生了。此外，这项研究还进行了问卷实验，并分析了人们对各种形式的工资状况的偏好。20世纪90年代是日本自上次战争以来经历过的最糟糕的时期，最糟糕的情况仍然存在。已经进行了多次裁员，但公司尚未恢复元气。对这项研究的文化分析表明，简单的裁员战略不会改善日本经济。

This research has produced a few papers in addition to a book Culture, Organization, and Labor Market Institutions- An Economic Analysis of the Japanese System. This book shows that culture strongly affects economic efficiency as well as the forms of institutions and organizations. This is a new assertion in economics, which is derived from such concepts as transactions costs, incomplete contracts, discretion, interdependence, and trust. Using game theory this research showed that high job security such as lifetime employment generates a high degree of organizational efficiency in a high-trust culture. Various types of experimental games were undertaken to test methods of improving efficiency.This research also analyzed the significance of trust in an economy and succeeded in devising a mathematical and economic definition of trust. Starting from the meaning used in daily life, it is expressed in the most general form as probability based on a von Neumann-Morgenstern utility function.Further, this research investigated upward-sloping wage profiles characterizing the Japanese seniority-wage system. The lifecycle wage model I developed predicts that population ageing will flatten wage profiles. An empirical analysis undertaken in this research demonstrates that this actually happened. In addition, this research performed questionnaire experiments and analyzed people's preferences towards various shapes of wage profiles.The 1990s is the worst period Japan has ever experienced since the last war, and the worst conditions still persist. Many layoffs have been undertaken, but firms have not yet recovered. A cultural analysis of this research suggests that a simple layoff strategy will not improve the Japanese economy.