Tomoya Suzuki

Credit channel of monetary policy in Japan: resolving the supply versus demand puzzle

The credit view is that a monetary tightening affects the real economy by shifting the supply schedule of bank credit left. While bank credit typically contracts following a monetary tightening, the financial contraction does not necessarily mean a shift of the supply schedule. Testing the credit view requires the identification of the shifts of the demand and supply schedules of credit. Using an original approach, this study shows that the credit view is supported for Japan. The credit view is, however, composed of two different views, namely the lending view and the balance-sheet view. While the balance-sheet view implies that the cutback of lending has no impact on the real economy, the lending view implies independent impacts of the cutback. Given the acceptance of the credit view, this study further attempts to test the balance-sheet view against the lending view.

ECONOMIC MODELLING OF SUICIDE UNDER INCOME UNCERTAINTY: FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF MIDDLE-AGED SUICIDE*

This paper formalises an individuals decision about suicide within a framework of lifetime utility maximisation models. This is in line with the literature on economic modelling of suicide. The novelty of the paper is to take into account income uncertainty. Income uncertainty reduces a risk-averse individuals expected utility, making them more likely to commit suicide. On the other hand, income uncertainty creates a value to postponing suicide even when their income gets sufficiently low. This is because income uncertainty means that if things go well, they will get higher income in the future. Thus, income uncertainty has two opposite effects on suicidal behaviour. The main objective of this paper is to construct an economic model of suicide for investigating net impacts of income uncertainty on suicidal behaviour. For this purpose, it is assumed that the wage evolves according to a stochastic process. Then, the threshold wage, below which an individual commits suicide, is derived as a function of the parameters of the stochastic process assumed for the wage evolution. Impacts of changes in these parameters on the threshold wage are calculated. With the result, the paper shows how income uncertainty affects suicidal behaviour.

Permanent productivity shocks, migration and the labour wedge: business cycles in South Africa

ABSTRACT The findings of this study are as follows. First, permanent productivity shocks play a dominant role in South African business cycles. Second, the migration outflow has a negative effect on permanent productivity shocks. Third, a labour wedge that represents labour market inefficiency is significant in South Africa. Fourth, the labour wedge has a positive effect on the migration outflow. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that labour market inefficiency in South Africa pushes workers out of the country and permanently influences the country’s labour effectiveness, thereby driving South African business cycles.

Business Cycles in Post-Conflict Serbia: The Cycle Is the Trend

As a hypothesis, “the cycle is the trend” means that business cycles are driven primarily by permanent productivity shocks that generate stochastic trends. This study estimates stochastic growth models for Serbia during the 2002Q2–2017Q2 and 2007Q1–2017Q2 periods, thereby accepting the hypothesis. Major findings are as follows. Migration outflows from Serbia to Germany negatively influenced permanent productivity shocks. Permanent productivity shocks were negatively correlated with remittances, which is also suggestive of the negative effect of migration outflows on permanent productivity shocks under the assumption that workers migrate to send money home. Labor market inefficiency pushes workers out of Serbia.

Civil War, Migration and the Effect on Business Cycles: The Case of Sri Lanka

Abstract We estimated a stochastic growth model for Sri Lanka over the 1962–2015 period and found that permanent productivity shocks constituted the largest proportion of the variance in output growth. We computed correlation coefficients between permanent productivity shocks and some variables and found a negative correlation between the shocks and the growth in migration outflows. The findings are consistent with the negative effect of civil war on economic growth from an exodus of skilled workers. We further investigated the factors that drive migration from Sri Lanka to a major migration destination, namely Australia, for educated and skilled Sri Lankans. We regressed the growth rate of the Sri Lankan-born population in Australia on a civil war dummy variable, per worker Australian gross domestic product (GDP), adjusted for the restrictiveness of Australian immigration policy and an estimated labour wedge that represents labour market inefficiency in Sri Lanka. We found that Sri Lankan immigrants in Australia increased with per worker GDP in Australia, civil war and labour market inefficiency in Sri Lanka. The finding suggests that excessive protection of insiders in the Sri Lankan labour market should be abolished to mitigate migration outflows that have continued since the end of the civil war.