Miki Kohara

Do Borrowing Constraints Matter? An Analysis of Why the Permanent Income Hypothesis Does Not Apply in Japan

We use micro data on young married households from the Japanese Panel Survey of Consumers in order to analyze the importance of borrowing constraints in Japan. We find (1) that 8 to 15 percent of young married Japanese households are borrowing-constrained, (2) that household assets and the husbands educational attainment are the most important determinants of whether or not a household is borrowing-constrained, and (3) that the Euler equation implication is rejected for both the full sample and for the subsample of unconstrained households. These results suggest that the life cycle/permanent income hypothesis does not apply in Japan and that the presence of borrowing constraints is not the main reason why it does not apply.

Consumption insurance between Japanese households

This paper examines the implication of the full insurance hypothesis and differences in its applicability across groups of households in Japan. Using a rare Japanese individual panel data set called the Japanese Panel Survey of Consumption, the paper first shows that the full insurance hypothesis is strongly rejected for the country as a whole. The paper further shows that the rich as well as the poor, and also college graduates as well as non-college graduates cannot insure their consumption against income shocks. In sharp contrast, urban residents can pool income shocks completely, whereas rural residents cannot. Rural residents suffer from income risks more seriously than urban residents in Japan.

Measuring Search Frictions Using Japanese Microdata

This paper estimates matching functions to measure search frictions in the Japanese labor market and presents determinants of search duration to explain the effect of unemployment benefits on a job seeker fs behavior. We employ administrative micro data that track the job search process of individuals who left or lost their job in August 2005 and subsequently registered at their local public employment service. Our finding is that the matching function would exhibit decreasing returns-to-scale for job seekers and vacancies, rather than constant return-to-scale. We also find that generous unemployment benefits lengthen (shorten) the duration of job search for job seekers who voluntarily (involuntarily) leave employment.