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Nishimura et al. [Nishimura, K.G., Nakajima, T., Kiyota, K., 2005. Does the natural selection mechanism still work in severe recessions? Examination of the Japanese economy in the 1990s. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 58, 53–78] analyze the entry/exit behavior of Japanese firms during the 1990s and find that relatively efficient firms exited while relatively inefficient firms survived during the banking-crisis period of 1996–1997. They conclude that the natural selection mechanism (NSM) apparently malfunctions during severe recessions, but we offer a more plausible interpretation: NSM continued to function effectively even during this period, but aberrant banking practices caused a shift in the type of natural selection from directional to disruptive selection, with the most efficient as well as the least efficient firms being favored and firms of intermediate efficiency being selected against.

The Euro area economy has been recovering modestly since 2008. However, the recoveries in the Euro area countries have been very different. We find that the difference in recoveries after 2008 is projected well by Economic Complexity Indices (ECIs) before 2007, and the economic performance of the low ECI countries after 2008 is poorer than that of the high ECI countries. The result indicates that product and firm diversity is the major factor of our problem. To explain our findings, we analyze a heterogeneous-agent model based on the multisector Schumpeterian endogenous growth model with firm entry and exit and firm diversity. In our numerical analysis, we show that an economy that has low firm diversity is fragile to unanticipated exogenous environmental changes that can precipitously slow down the growth rate. The result explains our empirical findings and indicates that policies to increase firm diversity are required to solve the problem. We conclude that the significance of firm diversity in each country should not be ignored.

Studies have indicated that a program of systematic lexical expansion is necessary in English language instruction for Japanese university students. In this paper, a word list compiled from the Defining Vocabulary of three major monolingual dictionaries is proposed as pedagogically effective. Based on the list, word surveys and vocabulary tests were conducted with 367 first- and second-year Doshisha students. The results have led to an estimate that the average student knows 40-60% of the words on the proposed list. Mastering the remaining 500 or so problematic words, which would make monolingual dictionaries more accessible, represents a clear, significant, and feasible goal for students to attain during the first two years of college study., 大学における英語学習には語彙力の増進が欠かせない。学習者用の英英または英英和辞書を使用する程度まで語彙力を伸ばすことができれば、語彙学習にはずみがつくはずである。そこで、主要な三つの辞書の定義語彙を基に学習用語彙リストを作成し、それを用いて1、2年次生367名を対象に語彙力調査と語彙テストを実施した結果、平均的な学生は、リストされた語彙の40-60%をすでに習得しているという推定に達した。残りの約500語を確実に学習すれば、英英(和)辞書の使用に一歩近づくことができるという意味で、この語彙リストは大学1、2年次の英語学習に相応しい説得力のある習得目標になり得るものと思われる。

In this paper, we propose an evolutionary extension of Schumpeterian endogenous growth model with multi-sector by introducing the three types of natural selection: stabilizing selection, directional selection, and disruptive selection. Based on them, the survival of firms is determined in each period. As a metrics of survival rates, we incorporate "firm fitness'' in the economy into a well-known endogenous economic growth model. Moreover, in this model, firms can enter, exit, and move among sectors. In addition, the model permits us to simulate the economy's aggregate productivity as well as firm diversity in the three types of natural selection. For stabilizing and directional selection when firms enter and exit, firm diversity decreases, but aggregate productivity greatly improves. On the other hand, in the case of disruptive selection, aggregate productivity increases only by a small amount, but diversity increases. Thus, stabilizing and directional selection are more effective for improving short-run aggregate productivity. But firms will become weaker in the presence of future environmental changes such as innovations of general-purpose technology, climate changes, and social regime changes, because diversity decreases. With drastic environmental changes, the fall-off in aggregate productivity will be great. In contrast, disruptive selection is not effective for improving short-run aggregate productivity. The economy, however, will become relatively robust in the occurrence of future environmental changes, since firm diversity increases.

Did "Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing (QQE),'' which has been conducted by the Bank of Japan from April 2013, end the long deflation of the Japanese economy? Answering the question, we constructed a linear projection model to estimate Ex-Ante Real interest Rates (EARRs) and Inflation Expectations (IEs) based on Japanese macroeconomic data. In our empirical study, we obtain two major results. The first result shows that we can observe a sharp decline of an EARR and the sudden increase of an IE after March, 2013, which is consistent with the actual core inflation. Second, estimating dummy variables in the model, we find that a structural break occurred in April, 2013. A regime change (regime shift) of Japanese monetary policy occurred in March or April, 2013. They also present that QQE has a strong effect on the Japanese economy and realized the sharp recovery in 2013. We conclude that the regime change of monetary policy end the Japanese long deflation in 2013.

In this paper, we propose an evolutionary extension of Schumpeterian endogenous growth model with multi-sector by introducing the three types of natural selection: stabilizing selection, directional selection, and disruptive selection. Based on them, the survival of firms is determined in each period. As a metrics of survival rates, we incorporate "firm fitness" in the economy into the well-known endogenous economic growth model. Moreover, in this model, firms can enter, exit, and move among sectors based on the fitness. In addition, the model permits us to simulate the economy's firm diversity as well as real growth rates in the three types of natural selection. Based on the model with them, we simulate the economy with or without "Unanticipated" Future Environmental Changes (UFEC) using the Monte Carlo method. In the no-UFEC economy of directional selection, the firm diversity of the economy converges to the lower level rather than the firm diversity of the stabilizing selection economy, but the real growth rate of it approaches highest level rather than the real growth rates of the stabilizing- and disruptive-selection economies. On the other hand, in the no-UFEC economy of disruptive selection, the firm diversity of it converges to the highest level rather than the stabilizing- and directional-selection economies, while the real growth rate of it approaches the same level of stabilizing-selection economy. Thus, directional selection in the no-UFEC economy is most effective for improving real growth rate in the steady state. However, the presences of UFECs alter the implications. After a UFEC occurs, the great fall-off of the real growth rate is observed in the economy of directional selection, while the real growth rate in the disruptive-selection economy is kept stable. This indicates that the UFEC economy of directional selection is weaker in the presence of UFEC such as innovations of general-purpose technology, climate changes, and social regime changes, because low diversity occurs. Contrastingly, the UFEC economy of disruptive selection after UFEC is more robust rather than the directional-selection economy, since the highest firm diversity occurs. Although the disruptive selection in the UFEC economy is not most effective for improving real growth rates in the long run.

Nishimura et al. (2005) analyze the entry/exit behavior of Japanese firms during the 1990s and find that relatively efficient firms exited while relatively inefficient firms survived during the banking-crisis period of 1996-97. They conclude that the natural selection mechanism (NSM) apparently malfunctions during severe recessions, but we offer a more plausible interpretation: NSM continued to function effectively even during this period, but aberrant banking practices caused a shift in the type of natural selection from directional to disruptive selection, with the most efficient as well as the least efficient firms being favored and firms of intermediate efficiency being selected against.

Nishimura, Nakajima, and Kiyota (2005) analyze the entry/exit behavior patterns of Japanese firms during the 1990s and find that relatively efficient (high total factor productivity (TFP)) firms exited while relatively inefficient (low TFP) firms survived during the banking-crisis period of 1996-97. They conclude from this finding that the natural selection mechanism (NSM) apparently malfunctions during severe recessions, but we offer a much more plausible interpretation: the NSM continued to function effectively even during this period, but aberrant banking practices (in particular,forbearance lending(evergreening) and the forcible withdrawal of loans and/or the reluctance to lend) caused a shift in the type of natural selection from directional selection to disruptive selection, with the most efficient (highest TFP) firms as well as the least efficient (lowest TFP) firms being favored and firms of intermediate efficiency and TFP being selected against.

We empirically examined whether declining bank loans in Japan in the late 1990s are the result of banks' downward adjustments of lending supply (a "credit crunch") in response to capital losses (a "capital crunch"). Estimating the new lending supply function as a non-linear function of the capital to asset ratio, we found that the (new lending supply) function is not only increasing in bank capital but also concave in bank capital, which supports the view that a "credit crunch" occurs since forward-looking banks have an incentive to avoid failing to meet regulatory requirements in the future.

数年来、英英辞書の定義語(defining vocabulary) に基づいた語彙リストや語彙テスト、並びに、テスト結果を反映させた復習指導などにより、語彙の強化を図りつつ、英英辞書使用をより身近なものにする試みを進めてきたが、この試みは次の点から極めて有意義と思われる。即ち、語学学習の要である語彙自体に焦点を向けられること、英英辞書の見出しや説明自体が語彙増強につながる格好の教材であること、英語による英語学習法が刺激的な目標となり得る、などである。, A second set of vocabulary instruction materials based on the defining vocabulary of three major English learner's dictionaries, including word lists and practice tests, is proposed to help students review and practice, or when necessary learn the defining vocabulary of major English-English learner's dictionaries. Through taking two rounds of practice tests, students enhance their recognition knowledge of the defining vocabulary while developing an awareness of different aspects of word study. At the same time, the format of the tests is devised to familiarize students with dictionary entries in English., 論文(Article)

別冊, Robert H. Grant先生追悼号, 論文

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