IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sls/ipmsls/v33y20176.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can Intangible Investments Ease Declining Rates of Return on Capital in Japan?

Author

Listed:
  • Tsutomu Miyagawa
  • Miho Takizawa
  • Konomi Tonogi

Abstract

Japan's economic growth has slowed since the collapse of the bubble economy in the 1990s due to low capital accumulation. We focus on the low rate of return on capital, which led to this slow capital accumulation, finding that it was caused by an increase in the capital-output ratio and low capital share. Not only has the rate of return on capital declined, but its variance across industries has increased, as has the number of industries with negative rates of return. We estimate a profit function in which the profit rate is explained not only by the real wage but also by intangibles. The estimation results show that investment in human resources increases the profit rate and that intangibles contribute to this increase through productivity improvement, especially in the IT industry. Our study implies that governments should implement a comprehensive innovation policy that stimulates investments not only in R&D, but also in IT and human resources.

Suggested Citation

  • Tsutomu Miyagawa & Miho Takizawa & Konomi Tonogi, 2017. "Can Intangible Investments Ease Declining Rates of Return on Capital in Japan?," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 33, pages 114-127, Fall.
    • Handle: RePEc:sls:ipmsls:v:33:y:2017:6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.csls.ca/ipm/33/Miyagawa_Takizawa_Tonogi.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fukao, Kyoji & Otaki, Masayuki, 1993. "Accumulation of Human Capital and the Business Cycle," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(1), pages 73-99, February.
    2. Nicholas Bloom & Charles I. Jones & John Van Reenen & Michael Webb, 2020. "Are Ideas Getting Harder to Find?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(4), pages 1104-1144, April.
    3. Charles R. Hulten & Edwin R. Dean & Michael J. Harper, 2001. "New Developments in Productivity Analysis," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number hult01-1.
    4. Gianluca Benigno & Luca Fornaro, 2018. "Stagnation Traps," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 85(3), pages 1425-1470.
    5. Dale Jorgenson & Mun Ho & Jon Samuels & Kevin Stiroh, 2007. "Industry Origins of the American Productivity Resurgence," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 229-252.
    6. Carol Corrado & Charles Hulten & Daniel Sichel, 2009. "Intangible Capital And U.S. Economic Growth," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 55(3), pages 661-685, September.
    7. Susanto Basu & John Fernald, 2001. "Why Is Productivity Procyclical? Why Do We Care?," NBER Chapters, in: New Developments in Productivity Analysis, pages 225-302, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Kyoji Fukao & Tsutomu Miyagawa & Hak Kil Pyo & Keun Hee Rhee, 2012. "Estimates of Total Factor Productivity, the Contribution of ICT, and Resource Reallocation Effects in Japan and Korea," Chapters, in: Matilde Mas & Robert Stehrer (ed.), Industrial Productivity in Europe, chapter 9, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Matilde Mas & Robert Stehrer (ed.), 2012. "Industrial Productivity in Europe," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14369.
    10. Magnus Blomström & Jennifer Corbett & Fumio Hayashi & Anil Kashyap, 2003. "Structural Impediments to Growth in Japan," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number blom03-1.
    11. Hall, Bronwyn H., 1993. "Industrial Research During the 1980s: Did the Rate of Return Fall?," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt33d879r9, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    12. T. Miyagawa & Y. Sakuragawa & M. Takizawa, 2006. "Productivity And Business Cycles In Japan: Evidence From Japanese Industry Data," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 57(2), pages 161-186, June.
    13. Albert Ando & Dimitrios Christelis & Tsutomu Miyagawa, 2003. "Inefficiency of Corporate Investment and Distortion of Savings Behavior in Japan," NBER Chapters, in: Structural Impediments to Growth in Japan, pages 155-190, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Bronwyn H. Hall, 1993. "Industrial Research during the 1980s: Did the Rate of Return Fall?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 24(2 Microec), pages 289-343.
    15. repec:hoo:wpaper:e-93-10 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Hyunbae CHUN & MIYAGAWA Tsutomu & Hak Kil PYO & TONOGI Konomi, 2015. "Do Intangibles Contribute to Productivity Growth in East Asian Countries? Evidence from Japan and Korea," Discussion papers 15055, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    17. FUKAO Kyoji & HAMAGATA Sumio & INUI Tomohiko & ITO Keiko & Hyeog Ug KWON & MAKINO Tatsuji & MIYAGAWA Tsutomu & NAKANISHI Yasuo & TOKUI Joji, 2007. "Estimation Procedures and TFP Analysis of the JIP Database 2006 Provisional Version," Discussion papers 07003, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    18. Kim, YoungGak & Fukao, Kyoji & Makino, Tatsuji, 2010. "The Structural Causes of Japan's “Two Lost Decades”," Economic Review, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 61(3), pages 237-260, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. MIYAGAWA Tsutomu & TAKIZAWA Miho & TONOGI Konomi, 2016. "Declining Rate of Return on Capital and the Role of Intangibles in Japan," Discussion papers 16051, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    2. Hulten, Charles R., 2010. "Growth Accounting," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 987-1031, Elsevier.
    3. KIYOTA Kozo, 2010. "Productivity, Markup, Scale Economies, and the Business Cycle: Estimates from firm-level panel data in Japan," Discussion papers 10040, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    4. Kyoji Fukao & YoungGak Kim & HyeogUg Kwon, 2021. "The Causes of Japan’s Economic Slowdown: An Analysis Based on the Japan Industrial Productivity Database," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 40, pages 56-88, Spring.
    5. Hall, Bronwyn H. & Mairesse, Jacques & Mohnen, Pierre, 2010. "Measuring the Returns to R&D," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1033-1082, Elsevier.
    6. Charles R. Hulten, 2009. "Growth Accounting," NBER Working Papers 15341, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Takuji Fueki & Takuji Kawamoto, 2008. "Does Information Technology Raise Japan's Productivity?," Bank of Japan Working Paper Series 08-E-8, Bank of Japan.
    8. Fueki, Takuji & Kawamoto, Takuji, 2009. "Does information technology raise Japan's productivity?," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 325-336, December.
    9. John G. Fernald & J. Christina Wang, 2016. "Why Has the Cyclicality of Productivity Changed? What Does It Mean?," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 8(1), pages 465-496, October.
    10. Peter Bauer & Igor Fedotenkov & Aurelien Genty & Issam Hallak & Peter Harasztosi & David Martinez Turegano & David Nguyen & Nadir Preziosi & Ana Rincon-Aznar & Miguel Sanchez Martinez, 2020. "Productivity in Europe: Trends and drivers in a service-based economy," JRC Research Reports JRC119785, Joint Research Centre.
    11. Yusuke Oh & Koji Takahashi, 2020. "R&D and Innovation: Evidence from Patent Data," Bank of Japan Working Paper Series 20-E-7, Bank of Japan.
    12. Mariela Dal Borgo & Peter Goodridge & Jonathan Haskel & Annarosa Pesole, 2013. "Productivity and Growth in UK Industries: An Intangible Investment Approach," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 75(6), pages 806-834, December.
    13. W Max Corden & Sisira Jayasuriya, 2016. "The Japanese macroeconomic mystery," Departmental Working Papers 2016-03, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
    14. Hiroki Arato & Katsunori Yamada, 2012. "Japan's Intangible Capital and Valuation of Corporations in a Neoclassical Framework," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 15(4), pages 459-478, October.
    15. Kyoji Fukao, 2013. "Explaining Japan's Unproductive Two Decades," Asian Economic Policy Review, Japan Center for Economic Research, vol. 8(2), pages 193-213, December.
    16. Hall, Bronwyn H. & Oriani, R, 2006. "Does the market value R&D investment by European firms? Evidence from a panel of manufacturing firms in France, Germany, and Italy," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt8wc513c1, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    17. Gavin Cameron, 2000. "R and D and Growth at the Industry Level," Economics Series Working Papers 2000-W04, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    18. Ugur, Mehmet & Trushin, Eshref & Solomon, Edna & Guidi, Francesco, 2016. "R&D and productivity in OECD firms and industries: A hierarchical meta-regression analysis," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(10), pages 2069-2086.
    19. Nagaoka, Sadao, 2006. "R&D and market value of Japanese firms in the 1990s," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 155-176, June.
    20. Garga, Vaishali & Singh, Sanjay R., 2021. "Output hysteresis and optimal monetary policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 871-886.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Intangible Capital; Profit Function; Investment; Productivity.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • D25 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Intertemporal Firm Choice: Investment, Capacity, and Financing
    • H54 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Infrastructures

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sls:ipmsls:v:33:y:2017:6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CSLS (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cslssca.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.