Kazuki Onji

The Response of Firms to Eligibility Thresholds: Evidence from the Japanese Value-Added Tax

It is common to defi ne benefi t eligibility for small business policies by restrictions on the fi rm size. This paper investigates the incentives for a large fi rm to masquerade as many small fi rms by separately incorporating business segments, focusing on the case of the Japanese value-added tax. The paper fi nds that the masquerading was pervasive and took place quickly after the introduction of tax incentives. Tax avoidance caused 3.4 per cent of the overall revenue drain in 1990, thus reducing horizontal equity, but the effi ciency consequence would not have been severe. This study suggests that the masquerading by fi rms may be commonplace in other settings.

Tax Law Asymmetries and Income Shifting: Evidence from Japanese Capital Keiretsu

Abstract While the asymmetric treatment of positive and negative income creates clear tax incentives to shift income among a group of closely related corporations, attempts to document the impact of such behavior on economic outcomes are relatively sparse. We aim to provide evidence on tax-motivated transfers from a large dataset of Japanese corporate groups. Using company level data on 33,340 subsidiary time pairs from 1988, 1990, and 1992, we consider testable implications of income shifting in a theoretical model tailored to the Japanese institution of the early 1990s and empirically examine the spread of the profitability distribution, the attrition rate of loss-making subsidiaries, and the propensity to report zero profit. The findings suggest that income shifting was pervasive when Japan had not adopted a formal allowance for group-level tax. The result underscores the importance of accounting for the inter-relatedness of companies, in designing a corporate income tax.

Who Participates in Corporate Income Tax Consolidation? Evidence from Japan

When a group of affiliated corporations have the option to file a single tax return based on a combined income, what types of groups would take up the option? This study empirically analyses decisions to participate in a single-jurisdiction consolidated tax filing. The data consists of 2,782 Japanese corporate groups headed by publicly-traded corporations observed over 2002-2007. Results indicate higher likelihood of participation among groups characterised by low correlation in returns among group members, high variance in returns, large number of subsidiaries, and losses accumulated in parents. The significant influence of variance and covariance of returns suggests that a consolidation scheme improves the efficiency of corporate income tax through reducing profit shifting.

Banks Restructuring Sonata: How Capital Injection Triggered Labor Force Rejuvenation in Japanese Banks

Abstract Divergent interests of bank managers and financial regulators potentially compromise the efficacy of bank rescue operations. This study empirically investigates the agency problem encountered in a capital injection program implemented in Japan. We hypothesize that the operations requirement to reduce workforce lead banks to overstate the extent of downsizing by reassigning older workers to bank subsidiaries. We implement a difference-in-differences analysis using a panel of Japanese banks from 1990 to 2010. We also employ propensity score matching to control for sample selection bias. The result shows that injected banks exhibit workforce rejuvenation relative to non-injected banks. Among injected banks, the average employee age falls by approximately 1 year, which is equivalent to a reduction of approximately seventy 65-year-old workers. On an unconsolidated basis, the number of employees in injected banks decreases as a response to the injection. However, on a consolidated basis, which accounts for subsidiary employment, the number of employees does not decrease. Our finding suggests that the Japanese practice of lifetime employment (LTE) survived, albeit in a limited form, among restructured banks.

A Tale of Pork Prices: Evasion and Attenuation of a Japanese Tariff

This paper empirically examines the effectiveness of a safeguard tariff in the Japanese market for imported pork parts. The goals are, first, to consider a refinement to the traditional market-based method for evasion detection, and, second, to apply the method in a setting where evasion is suspected to be widespread. Utilising a within-pig variation in tariff burdens and the timing of safeguard invocations, I examine a panel of monthly wholesale prices on narrowly-defined pork products from 2001 through 2008. The results are consistent with a hypothesis that a widespread evasion nullified the safeguard tariff on pork, and are robust to a range of alternative explanations including the adjustment of profit margins by traders. Safeguard tariffs appear to be a simple mechanism, but behavioural responses can undo the policy intent.