IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/9444.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Inefficiency of Corporate Investment and Distortion of Savings Behavior in Japan

Author

Listed:
  • Albert Ando
  • Dimitrios Christelis
  • Tsutomu Miyagawa

Abstract

The value of corporate equity in Japan is dramatically smaller than that implied by the sum of the reproduction cost of accumulated investment and the market value of land owned by corporations (that is, the Tobin's average 'q' is much smaller than unity). This discrepancy appears to result from the very low rate of return earned on corporate investment and also from the extraordinarily small and stagnant dividend payments. It has persisted at least since l965, and its size has become progressively larger over time. If the value of corporate equity were sufficiently high to close the discrepancy, the net worth of the household sector would have been larger than its actual value by some 395 trillion yen in l998. Such an addition to household net worth would have generated additional consumption demand of at least 15 trillion yen. This paper traces the development of this valuation discrepancy over time, and explores its possible causes. In the process, we prepare an alternative estimate of the capital stock and its depreciation to those offered in the National Accounts. The basic difference is that the depreciation rates underlying our calculations are substantially lower than those used in the Japanese National Accounts, and closer to values prevailing in the United States. The qualitative characteristics of our results, however, remain unaffected by the choice between these alternative estimates.

Suggested Citation

  • Albert Ando & Dimitrios Christelis & Tsutomu Miyagawa, 2003. "Inefficiency of Corporate Investment and Distortion of Savings Behavior in Japan," NBER Working Papers 9444, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9444
    Note: EFG
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w9444.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Albert Ando & John Hancock & Gary Sawchuk, 1997. "Cost of Capital for the United States, Japan, and Canada: An Attempt at Measurement Based on Individual Company Records and Aggregate National Acccoun," NBER Working Papers 5884, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Hoshi, Takeo & Kashyap, Anil K., 1990. "Evidence on q and investment for Japanese firms," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 371-400, December.
    3. Hayashi, Fumio & Inoue, Tohru, 1991. "The Relation between Firm Growth and Q with Multiple Capital Goods: Theory and Evidence from Panel Data on Japanese Firms," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(3), pages 731-753, May.
    4. Fumio Hayashi, 1986. "Why Is Japan's Saving Rate So Apparently High?," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1986, Volume 1, pages 147-234, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Ando, Albert, 2002. "Missing Household Saving and Valuation of Corporations: Inquiry into Japanese National Accounts I," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 147-176, June.
    6. Fumio Hayashi, 1989. "Is Japan's saving rate high?," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 13(Spr), pages 3-9.
    7. Dekle, Robert, 1994. "Market value estimates of Japanese saving and comparisons with the U.S.: can the capital gains to land be included in 'saving?'," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 27-44.
    8. Ogawa, Kazuo & Kitasaka, Shin-ichi & Yamaoka, Hiroshi & Iwata, Yasuharu, 1996. "An empirical re-evaluation of wealth effect in Japanese household behavior," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 423-442, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Otsu Keisuke, 2009. "A Neoclassical Analysis of the Postwar Japanese Economy," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-30, May.
    2. 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.
    3. Cuong Nguyen, 2019. "The asymmetry in firms’ mechanisms of cash holdings adjustments: evidence from the G-5 economies," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 429-463, August.
    4. Nobuhiro Kiyotaki & Kenneth D. West, 2006. "Land Prices and Business Fixed Investment in Japan," Chapters, in: Lawrence R. Klein (ed.), Long-run Growth and Short-run Stabilization, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Nakajima, Tomoyuki, 2008. "Asset price fluctuations in Japan: 1980-2000," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 129-153, January.
    6. Horioka, Charles Yuji, 2006. "The causes of Japan's `lost decade': The role of household consumption," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 378-400, December.
    7. Nakajima, Tomoyuki, 2008. "Asset price fluctuations in Japan: 1980-2000," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 129-153, January.
    8. Yishay Yafeh, 2002. "An International Perspective of Japan's Corporate Groups and their Prospects," NBER Working Papers 9386, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. W Max Corden & Sisira Jayasuriya, 2016. "The Japanese macroeconomic mystery," Departmental Working Papers 2016-03, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
    10. 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.
    11. 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).

    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. Nobuhiro Kiyotaki & Kenneth D. West, 1996. "Business Fixed Investment and the Recent Business Cycle in Japan," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1996, Volume 11, pages 277-344, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Nobuhiro Kiyotaki & Kenneth D. West, 2006. "Land Prices and Business Fixed Investment in Japan," Chapters, in: Lawrence R. Klein (ed.), Long-run Growth and Short-run Stabilization, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. 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.
    4. Maki, Atsushi, 2006. "Changes in Japanese household consumption and saving behavior before, during and after the Bubble era: empirical analysis using NSFIE micro-data sets," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 2-21, January.
    5. Kasahara, Hiroyuki & Sawada, Yasuyuki & Suzuki, Michio, 2024. "The effect of bank recapitalization policy on credit allocation, investment, and productivity: Evidence from a banking crisis in Japan," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    6. Selahattin Imrohoroglu & Ayse Imrohoroglu & Kaiji Chen, 2006. "The Japanese Saving Rate," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1850-1858, December.
    7. Dekle, Robert, 2004. "Financing consumption in an aging Japan: The role of foreign capital inflows and immigration," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 506-527, December.
    8. Vidhan K. Goyal & Takeshi Yamada, 2004. "Asset Price Shocks, Financial Constraints, and Investment: Evidence from Japan," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 77(1), pages 175-200, January.
    9. Shimono Keiko & Ishikawa Miho, 2002. "Estimating the Size of Bequests in Japan: 1986-1994," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 1-21.
    10. Rappaport, Jordan, 2006. "A bottleneck capital model of development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(8), pages 2113-2129, November.
    11. Hiroyuki Kasahara & Yasuyuki Sawada & Michio Suzuki, 2016. "The Effect of Bank Recapitalization Policy on Corporate Investment: Evidence from a Banking Crisis in Japan," CARF F-Series CARF-F-399, Center for Advanced Research in Finance, Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo.
    12. Sekine, Toshitaka & Kobayashi, Keiichiro & Saita, Yumi, 2003. "Forbearance Lending: The Case of Japanese Firms," Monetary and Economic Studies, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan, vol. 21(2), pages 69-92, August.
    13. Saleem Bahaj & Angus Foulis & Gabor Pinter, 2020. "Home Values and Firm Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(7), pages 2225-2270, July.
    14. Yuzo Honda & Kazuyuki Suzuki, 2006. "Is Cash Flow a Proxy for Financing Constraints in the Investment Equation? The Case of Unlisted Japanese Firms," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 06-24, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    15. Fumio Hayashi & Takatoshi Ito & Joel Slemrod, 1987. "Housing Finance Imperfections and Private Saving: A Comparative Simulation Analysis of the U.S. and Japan," NBER Working Papers 2272, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Laurent Soulat, 2006. "Les modèles Q-investissement et les modèles d'Euler : relations de banque principale, asymétries informationnelles et modifications des structures financières des firmes de keiretsu financier," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00085680, HAL.
    17. Gan, Jie, 2007. "Collateral, debt capacity, and corporate investment: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(3), pages 709-734, September.
    18. Raff, Horst & Ryan, Michael & Stähler, Frank, 2018. "Financial frictions and foreign direct investment: Evidence from Japanese microdata," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 109-122.
    19. Toshitaka Sekine & Towa Tachibana, 2004. "Land Investment by Japanese Firms during and after the Bubble Period," Bank of Japan Working Paper Series 04-E-2, Bank of Japan.
    20. Nagahata, Takashi & Sekine, Toshitaka, 2005. "Firm investment, monetary transmission and balance-sheet problems in Japan: an investigation using micro data," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 345-369, August.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity

    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:nbr:nberwo:9444. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.