Overview
The goal of this project is to provide new benchmark estimates of industry-level price differentials between Japan and the United States. These will be based on the U.S.-Japan bilateral input-output table to be published in 2013 by METI and will make it possible to measure industry-level productivity gaps and price competitiveness between the U.S. and Japan. The system of purchasing power parities to be constructed in this project will cover not only the products for final demands, but also the products for intermediate demands, using a detailed classification of 170 products. The study will also include capital service by type of asset, including land, and labor services by type of worker. In considering policy challenges Japan confronts at present, our measurement will focus, in particular, on the wholesale and retail trade sectors and the reconstruction of the energy supply structure after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. These are key opportunities for closing the productivity gap between Japan and the U.S.
April 9, 2013 - March 31, 2015
