East Asian Industrial Productivity

In order to raise Japan's growth potential, it is essential to boost physical, human, and intellectual capital accumulation, the effective use of labor, and total factor productivity (TFP), which determine growth from the supply side. Moreover, to create sufficient demand and eliminate the negative GDP gap, it is necessary to promote investment by raising the return on capital, promote consumption through an increase in real wages, and raise firms' international competitiveness. Against this background, this project—based on industry- and firm-level data prepared for this purpose as well as international comparisons—aims to examine trends in the sources of Japan's economic growth as well as the determinants of these trends focusing on the supply side. Specifically, in addition to expanding and updating the Japan Industrial Productivity (JIP) and China Industrial Productivity (CIP) databases measuring industry-level TFP in Japan and China, we will construct a new 6-digit industry-level database for the manufacturing sector and, employing firm- and establishment-level data, analyze the impact of economic globalization, intangible investment, and regulations on TFP. Moreover, working with the Asia KLEMS Project and the World KLEMS Project—international research consortia building databases for productivity comparisons—our project will make it possible to compare productivity trends in Japan with those in the United States, Europe, and a number of Asian countries. In addition, by collaborating with other projects within the Raising Industrial and Firm Productivity program, we will conduct prefecture-level productivity analyses using the R-JIP Database and examine the effect of regulations on productivity growth.

April 1, 2015 - March 31, 2017